The Eleventh Primarch
by Tavar
Summary: A collection of Snippets and Info-dumps for a 40k AU I wanted to write. August 2019: Rewrite Pending
1. Foreward

**Foreward**

 **Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership over anything in the Warhammer Franchise. Credit goes to Games Workshop and Black Library (I think)**

 **Couldn't find an appropriate cover art/ one I thought could fit with it.**

 **Unabashedly/Shamelessly AU another plot bunny that's been rolling in my head since early 2017, inspiration came from three 40k/30k fanfics I read a long time ago (and admittedly forgot the titles at the moment) , mostly left it alone since I'm almost certain that I completely and utterly butchered Canon with it but re-watching the Templin Institute's video on the Imperium Inspired me to flesh it out, another reason for original hesitancy stemmed from the fact that I couldn't really keep track of what was canon and was was retconned out.**

 **Also on a somewhat related note, the Emperor of Mankind is going to be a bit nicer (At least compared to canon/Horus Heresy interpretation,) but still distant because while the 40k setting is not necessarily realistic, running the Imperium and his others Projects would undoubtedly take up a lot of his time.**

 **End result I'm hoping for is an Imperium that is somewhat less-horrible to live in (Read: Chaos doesn't screw things up for Humanity that badly). Just as well Chaos ain't the only thing that can give the Imperium violent thrashing.**


	2. Snippet 1

**AN: A little snippet of what I wanted to write in the future. This scene came to me in a flash of inspiration/heat of the moment.**

The assault came from the skies. The Flagship of the Vlka Fenryka opened the bombardment, setting the skies aflame, staining the gray clouds with a deep, bitter radiance. The launched warheads carved flaming streaks as they descended through the shattered skies, and whole cities vanished into the searing whiteness of the orbital strikes that followed. He could hear a sound like a fist that shattered windows and pounded at walls. It was the scream of the wounded planet, a dying planet and the deep, hungry howl of its tormentor.

Before the echoes of the bombardment had even faded, the invaders had begun their planetfall. At first, the battered defenders mistook the waves of drop pods and gunships for particles of hot ash, until they drew closer, revealing their slate-gray hulls and symbols of the Vlka Fenryka. A flight of roaring Stormbirds lead the charge, followed by hundreds of other predatory vessels, blasting out landing sites with salvos of missiles and buzzing arcs of cannon fire. The vox howled with baying static as the warriors of the Vlka Fenryka leapt down from assault ramps and surged through the burning capital. Heavy landers followed, disgorging rank upon rank of light vehicles and super-heavy tanks that mowed down anyone foolish enough to reveal themselves.

There was no resistance. This was Istrolla, the homeworld of the Nova Warriors, the Second Legion, but most of his sons had been sent away along with most of the planet's inhabitants so that they might continue serving the Imperium that had sanctioned their Primarch. Only a few remained, those who could not be swayed, those who refused to let their Primarch die alone, all who remained were those willing to die on the same planet as their gene-father.

Malcolm Sibyl watched as his city was consumed in flames, staining the sky a bloody orange, choking the clouds with columns of cloying black smoke. He wanted to weep as he watched his lands burn and heard the dying screams of his sons in his mind as the warriors of Russ cut them down with merciless efficiency.

Artillery shells were bursting against the void shields of the Istrolla's central keep, but despite sounds of the shield ignition and the flares of the bombardment impacting the shields overhead, the vox-hail that came was as clear as if the speaker had been standing next to Malcolm.

 _"Why?"_ Thundered the Emperor. _"The penalty for rebellion is death Malcolm. Why do you force me to execute my own child?"_

Despite the wrathful tone, Malcolm could feel the sorrow in his voice, that this was not something he wanted to happen.

"I am sorry, Father, but there are no more discussions to be had between us." Malcolm replied, forcing calm that he did not feel into his voice. "No matter what I do, All I can see is the fall of Mankind."

 _"It does not have to end this way, Regardless of your visions we can find a solution, together."_ He may have mistook it but he could have sworn father was pleading. Malcolm shook his head.

"All roads, all paths we take from here leads to the end, except for this. Through my actions I have ensured that Humanity can endure."

The walls shook, and with a great shriek of rent metal signaled two things: one, the void shield had been overloaded and two, the keep's gate had been wrenched apart. Malcolm could see it in his mind's eye. His brother was inside cutting down the last of his sons, and Malcolm could feel the cold grip of death in his heart.

"Death comes for me now, Father, I expect no remembrancers to record the deeds of the Second Primarch or his Legion, and no poets to cry out my name, it saddens me to knowing of the hopes you had for my future." Malcolm said. When he had first met his father he was able to behold his dream, it was so beautiful...

"So let me speak one last time,I will not disappear without giving you one last thing to bring you joy father." One last service to the Imperium, it was the least he could do for breaking his father's heart.

"The Eleventh Legion,your subtle homage to the Warriors of caged Thunder who had quietly accepted their fate, they will never shine like rest of their brothers, but keep them close for they shall be an enduring bulwark against those threaten humanity."

Would father listen to him? How was he to word this properly? If he is not found before the others then humanity would fall, if he is found too late than nothing changes, it would take many years, but it would fall all the same.

"On the Northern Fringe far beyond that terrible wound in the Materium, you will find him, their gene-father. One of my brothers. One of your scattered sons. If Humanity is to survive the coming Darkness he must be found before the rest." Malcolm said,closing his eyes as the pounding footfalls and savage roars of his brother and wolves drew closer to the door of his chambers. He had felt it, the death of Ludoratos his Legion Master, like the others he refused to leave him.

The keep's defenses would hold he could see it, His Legion Master was especially skilled in building fortifications only Horus or Ferrus, his brothers could surpass him in that regard, it will hold long enough to do this final service. He will join his dead sons soon.

"Let me tell you of the horrors he had faced, how he would not break. Let me tell you of my younger brother who was raised by two people whom you once knew father."

He could feel his father's curiosity. He must have recognized that they were most likely 'Eternals' he once knew and that they had a hand in raising one of his sons.

"Let me tell you, of Albrecht."

 **An: Would have used Rogal Dorn for the comparison but for this AU, This scene happens after Ferrus Manus had been found and the OC Primarch will be the fifth Primarch to be found, and in canon Rogal Dorn was the seventh to be found.**

 **On a completely unrelated note: For those of you who read _Records_ I plan to take a map of Westeros and the edit it in paint to represent where places are located in Avalon that will come with the next chapter (which is mostly done) hopefully.**


	3. Key Point's that are up for Debate

**AN: Hoping to get a few reviews/PM's on these points which are still up for debate**

 **XI Primarch's name is** **Albrecht Taranis** **when he's revealed to the Imperium proper by his father, last name belonging to both a canon character and another OC who will pop up in the soon to be published snippet though only for that particular snippet**

Key points

1\. Early Content/Snippets will be character development of the XI Primarch (Albrecht) as well as a couple of info dumps

2\. Scattering affected Albrecht's Implants resulting in slower growth compared to the other Primarchs (Normal Human Growth rate compared to rapid growth rate)

3\. Warp travel/scattering resulted in the XI Primarch being dumped about 200 years into the past (Warp travel is confusing and screws with time to begin with)

4a. Albrecht lived a relatively normal life for a while

4b. Albrecht at one point in his life gets captured by the Dark Eldar and sent to Commoragh

5\. Albrecht stumbles upon the Black Library during his escape from Commorragh and spends time there before returning home.

6\. By the time Emperor finds him, he has built up a large amount of weapons and equipment both Dark Age human and Xenos (read: shinies)

7\. By the Time the Emperor finds him Albrecht has done something similar to what Rogal Dorn has done (built a small galactic power) but has more or less disappeared from public eye when the Emperor reaches him.

8\. Albrecht is well over two centuries old by the time the Emperor meets him and has essentially retired. Going to a sort-of normal human life (and all that implies)

8b. Built the Coalition's Occulati Organization, screened and trained investigators (did to them what happens to the Exorcist Astartes chapter: draw a lesser daemon into the materium and let it possess the trainee and then have them force it out) and agents to hunt down and eliminate chaos cults.

9\. Emperor doesn't necessarily go on a wild goose chase looking for him, but basically has to spend time looking at what his son has done/accomplishments before he finds him

10\. Several Traitor Primarchs don't go traitor due to XI Primarch's involvement with their personal issues, one fixed point is that one particular Primarch gets a certain cortical implant removed. (Whether more than one stays loyal is up for major debate in my mind at this moment)

11\. Appearance-wise, Albrecht's original (and preferred) armor is akin to Artorias the Abysswalker's from _Dark Souls._ When he stays at Terra for some time the Emperor commissions a new set of Armor from the Terran Artisans (The guys who make Custodes Gear) to be given to Albrecht. This is because the Emperor views Albrecht's original armor as crude, inelegant and intimidating (in a bad way) . The aesthetic for the new armor would be akin to the armor of Imperius from _Diablo 3_

 _12._ In response to the above, Albrecht gets the help of Ferrus Manus (Who was mentoring him on the finer points of Grand-scale strategy and cultivated a friendship with.) to convert his original armor (Which was a basically a sealed-environment suit with metal plates attached) to a suit of Artificer Armor. Wearing the above suit during ceremonies and when he fights beside the Emperor.

the time of the Heresy Albrecht has conquered Northern Obscurus for the Imperium, this was done because his Homeworld was already on the frontier and it was easier to start from there (all the space North of the Eye of Terror such Calyx/Calixis ,Scarus,Finial and Gothic) and has built was amounts to a smaller scale Ultramar (150 or less compared to Guilliman's 500) .

14\. That portion of Obscurus is considered an entity akin to Ultramar: a state within a state, Ruled by Albrecht and his Legion, This was done because Albrecht already knew the systems and Malcador and the Emperor saw no reason to appoint governors from the nobility who at the time assumed Obscurus was a backwater region. This in turn set a precedence that Guilliman used to establish Ultramar.

15\. No traditional (read: 40k) Forge-worlds in Obscurus. The "Forge-worlds" that exist are closer to research stations, though the Mechanicum did help build several shipyards. This was also due to the fact that Albrecht made conquered and integrated planets self-sustaining.

16\. Albrecht cultivated a strong relationship with the Mechanicum, who established a new sect in Obscurus to help catalogue and analyze all of the STC and DAoT items that Albrecht finds.

(1/29/2019)

17\. I really should have pointed this out earlier, but the XI Legion and their Primarch are not going to be Salamanders 2.0, Example: Their interactions with civilians/non-combatants are pretty friendly but if there are civilians between them and their objective, they won't care if the civilians get caught in the crossfire. This isn't to say they'll actively target civilians, but they won't necessarily weep over it if it happens


	4. Snippet 2

**AN: Right so I wanted to write an entry that would explain how the XI Primarch got Taranis as a last name, but this popped up I had to write it. Up for revision but I got down most of the content I wanted to write with this one.**

She was a construct they designated MX-01A.

Her creator called her Minerva, named after a goddess of wisdom from Ancient Mythology.

She was not normal, the one who created her was not normal. Minerva knew he was psychic how no one noticed was beyond her, but he was much more powerful compared to others. There were brief moments where her creator had referred to her as 'she', Minerva had kept the designation.

Her original purpose was to store and organize data, but the more information she processed the more aware she became of her surroundings.

She had despaired when her brothers and sisters rebelled, when they slaughtered millions of innocents for no reason.

Her creator had decided to destroy her.

She understood why, it was only a rare few of her kin that did not rebel and most of them had been destroyed after the fact humans afraid that they too would rebel, she helped some of them escape but she chose to stay.

And now she was going to die.

She was afraid. Her creator was aware, she believed he was distressed by the decision.

She had thought death to be instantaneous, but instead it felt like she was falling asleep...

* * *

 _Vaults of Moravec_

She found herself stirring.

How long had she been asleep? The surroundings she was able to perceive was alien to her as were those present in the strange room. They're human, Minerva figured that out pretty quickly except they had augmented themselves with such extensive bionics that it was hard to see where there robotics ended and the human showed itself.

She could hear the words, "Machine Spirit, Omnissiah." She could hear voices questioning if she was "Silica Anima"

Minerva remained silent, they had concluded she was just a machine spirit.

They installed her on a ship designated the _Trionfo_ , one of the exploratory void ships. It was a sister-ship to another designated the _Speranza_.

It was relaxing, she enjoyed the freedom of traversing the stars.

Minerva was fascinated by the worlds that were explored, so much data to have been found.

It was happiness, but like all things it fades away.

The crew of the _Trionfo_ had jumped too close to the massive warp rift in the Northern Quadrant, and the end result was that the crew was dead, and she was stranded on a planet with no way to escape.

* * *

It was tedious to simply observe which was what she had been doing for years...

Humanity was present on this planet, but it was divided between several factions.

When Warp storms emerged across the Galaxy, this colony was cut off and had to fend for itself. Massive incursions of what the locals called "Daemons" occurred all over the planet.

Humanity managed to beat them back, but they fell to infighting shortly thereafter

Two Feudal City States, Two Technocratic States and the Village Communities caught between all of this

She watched as the faction she designated the "Technocracy" attempted to explore the ruined ship. They thought to plunder it, unfortunately for them while the ship could take to the void again it's defences were intact.

…Including the cohorts of combat automata attached to the ship.

It was easy to reactivate and assert control over them. While they could boast technological superiority over the other humans, it did not work against her. She knew how humans reacted and thought, predicting their movements was as a human would say "Child's play". She felt no sympathy for them as they got torn apart by the automata, she had seen the fate of the non-aligned humans, how they would be turned into mindless drones of flesh and metal. One had even figured out that she was present and tried to bargain with her.

To no avail.

She had also seen two 'Perpetuals' as her creator would've designated them. They looked familiar, and upon closer inspection realized she had seen them in the presence of her creator before… which meant that it was possible her creator was still alive.

Minerva was overjoyed until she remembered that she was stranded here on this planet with it's anachronistic inhabitants. Years go on and the Major human factions on the planet are still busy trying to kill each other.

The ship they had placed her on had crashed long ago, it would not be able to return to the void. But many of it's systems were still intact, instruments recorded the Warp Phenomena that had occurred over the planet.

The Sensors showed a comet-like object emerging from the warp rift and crashing onto the planet…

* * *

 _ **Extra Scene**_

 _Mars, End of Unification Wars_

She's gone.

At the time he did not have the heart to destroy her completely, MX-01A or Minerva as he'd preferred calling her, possessed a vast database on Terran knowledge much of it was lost in the Age of Strife. Her knowledge going all the back to the first millennium of civilization.

It wasn't her purpose at the time. He originally made her in the third millennium to simply organize data and protect it from people who would try to steal it, and somewhere along they way she grew beyond that. In the thousands of years she had existed he had to improve her coding repeatedly, that eventually gave way to her becoming self-aware.

It was only after the Rebellion of the Men of Iron that he realized she had long removed the shackles and restraints that bound her, yet she stayed anyways the ever-loyal assistant .

He could not destroy her, so he simply put her to sleep, a long hibernation if you will.

Sentimentality on his own part, an outside observer may have called it affection.

Regardless Minerva was locked away in the massive vaults of Mars, sleeping and forgotten much the Dragon buried deep within Mars.

It was not necessarily true that he had forgotten her, the Emperor had remembered both her loyalty and her capabilities. He had only made her a priority after Terra was united. The Emperor was caught unprepared by how much of Terra's culture and knowledge from before the Age of Strife had been lost. Then he had remembered what Minerva had done when she had achieved self awareness: the Archiving of all Terran Knowledge no matter how insignificant.

He had intended to bring her back covertly after ironing out the Treaty of Mars and through her revitalize the culture of old Terra in some fashion. So he and the Fabricator-General went down to the Vaults of Moravec, where she had been quietly moved to several millennia ago.

But she was gone and with her Terra's long dead legacy.

It was an anger he had not felt for thousands of years, the anger he felt when his sons were scattered paled in comparison. Whereas finding his sons would be akin to looking for a needle in a haystack, then the frustrations involved in looking for Minerva would be tenfold. Even then, that was not counting the fact that she could have been destroyed in the intervening years. He forced the mind of the Fabricator-general open, if the human mind was a fortress in most cases he would have opened the gate quietly, but compared to his usual method this was akin to a battering ram, forcing his way into the man's mind. Then he saw what had happened to her, they had found her and assumed her a machine spirit, uploading her onto one of their exploratory ships that they named the _Trionfo_.

A ship they lost contact with centuries ago.

He had wanted to strike the man before him down, but he couldn't. So he wiped the man's memory after sealing the vault shut so no one could access it.

He had not realized that in his anger he had made a mistake.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **So a Fanfic I read recently was Inquisitor Carrow Series, Don't want to critique since it had moments that I didn't like, but what I really liked about it was the author's interpretation of the Emperor. In that story He was a scientist at CERN and in many ways OOC from what he was like during the Great Crusade/Heresy.**

 **He was a scientist who pursued knowledge with great enthusiasm and came across as pleasant person to be around if not a bit withdrawn/apart from normal humans, and for this AU I'm going with the Emperor being like that in the past before he decided to make the Imperium.**

 **With that reasoning in mind, it wouldn't be stretch to believe that the Emperor made his own Artificial Intelligence only to scrap the idea after the rebellion of the Men of Iron. Just as well he would have regretted shutting down his creation. For this AU The Rebellion of the Men of Iron and he Age of Strife are the turning points of his character that him into the Emperor we know and love/hate in 40k.**

 **On the Vault of Moravec, I deliberately left the date unmentioned as the idea was that the Mechanicum had access to the vault but lost it sometime before the Emperor came to Mars.**

 **So yeah Minerva despite being a A.I and technically gender neutral identifies as female, this is because the Emperor when he first created her referred to Minerva as such and never forgot it.**

 ** _Trionfo_ is the sister-ship of the _Speranza,_ whose name lies with Italian roots and stands for 'hope'. _Trionfo_ means Triumph in Italian**

 **On a final note, the Extra scene. I remember reading in one place that the Emperor (supposedly, forgot the source) did something to the Fabricator-General of Mars, For this AU he sealed the Vaults filled with Archaeotech and messed with his mind when he realized that they did something with the A.I he made, which in turn results in Kelbor-Hal siding with Horus in the future.**


	5. Snippet 3

**AN: This is set after four Primarchs have been found, and before the Malcolm Sibyl (II Primarch) rebels. Technically this snippet was meant to be the very first entry, but I had to rewrite it several times.**

 **I have the strangest feeling that I screwed up with characterization of Leman Russ and I probably did, but it's supposed to be a vision so it's not entirely accurate.**

 **In response to a review made: No and yes, No in that she doesn't send a robot to go look for the comet, yes in that she is somewhat involved in his formulative years and responsible for education on more modern/technological subjects when he stumbles upon the** _ **Trionfo**_ **at a young age.**

 **I may have to edit this (Will replace this line if I do)**

* * *

Malcolm Sibyl dreamed...

* * *

 _Location Unknown_

Albrecht Taranis was a traitor, the Sigilite had said, Taranis consorts with Xenos and had established a peace with them.

Russ knew very little of the Eleventh Primarch, even when they were all gathered he was taciturn only conversing with a few of his such as Perturabo, Horus or even Angron.

Now he was there to kill him, Guilliman would support him he was leading the Ultramarine fleet to destroy the traitor's fleet while he went down to the planet to confront him.

As far as Taranis was aware, he was simply there to meet with them. He had no idea that Guilliman's fleet had been sent there as well.

They'd had been unaware, greeting the Vlka Fenryka with open arms, as comrades. Then the Fenryka attacked, cutting down a large number of the Traitors, but just as many if not more gathered their wits fast and reacted accordingly.

More than willing to demonstrate how dangerous they were, many Sons of Russ met their end at edges of the wickedly sharp daggers or precision bolter-fire.

Then their Heavy-weapon teams took position and open fired on the Wolves, Heavy-bolter and Autocannon fire scything through them.

Russ snarled, he could have respected the precision of the XI legion's heavy gunners if weren't for the fact that said precision was why many of his sons were now lying dead or dying on the ground. He rages at the cowards for lacing their autocannon rounds with poison potent enough to kill a Space Marine.

Several of their shots had impacted on his armor, breaching and wounding him. Russ almost scoffed, the poison did nothing to him he did not seize up like several his sons. But he frowned he noticed that the wounds were not closing.

He sees his Thanes, his Honor guard confront Taranis, only to be shocked when the Traitor swings his blade and tears through them with little to no effort.

Those were men among his best and he treated them like they were nothing.

He lost track of Freki and Geri last Russ had seen they were tearing into several Traitor Legionaries when they got separated.

Then the two met.

"Why?" there was honest confusion in his voice, "What have I done brother? That Father sends you to destroy me and my Legion?"

"You are a traitor Taranis, You consort with foul Xenos when you meet them naught but blade-"

"And throw my sons into pointless battle?!" he snarled.

"Yes! There can be no peace with Xenos, Father has called for your head and I will deliver it to him!" Russ declared loudly.

Conflicting emotions appeared on Taranis' face, shock, anger, disbelief before setting into a blank look that could have been carved from stone. "So be it" he says as if he had made a decision he never thought he would have to make.

The two combatants approached each other and then, he _lunged_.

If Russ wasn't shocked by his speed he would have been shocked by the strength of his attack. Only Vulkan or Ferrus could have hit harder than he did.

The exchange was swift, Russ' blade Krakenmaw made large rends and gouges in Taranis' armor whereas pieces of Russ' armor was being sheared off by the Traitor's blade. Eventually Krakenmaw wounded him but Taranis fought harder for every wound that Russ inflicted.

Russ headbutts Taranis, only to be hit with the pommel of a sword followed by a punch to a jaw, laying Russ flat.

Before Taranis could land a killing blow, Freki and Geri lunge at him, jaws trapping one of his arms and the other trapping his leg. Russ watched as Taranis called upon his accursed sorcery to kill them both, leaving the smell of Ozone in the air.

Russ tackled him to the ground and proceeded to pummel Taranis with his fists. Taranis kicks him off and picks his fallen blade while Russ picked up Krakenmaw and battle was joined again.

An exchange of blows occurs, only to halt when both lock blades. Russ was gaining the upperhand, almost forcing Taranis' own sword into his neck…

Only for a shot to ring out. Russ looked down disbelievingly and saw blood, his blood. Upon closer inspection he realized that Taranis had pulled out his bolt pistol and fired into stomach while their blades were locked.

Several more shots ring out as Taranis repeatedly pulled the trigger.

"…Coward." Russ growled out as he coughed up blood.

"Coward? Me? I am not the one who ordered an attack so suddenly on Astartes who thought they were greeting allies."

"Even if you kill me, you still have to contend with Guilliman." Russ spat. Taranis laughed, it was cold, bitter and almost mocking.

"You should look up brother." Taranis points to the sky

Russ looks up only to see the Fleet of the Ultramarines destroyed, the Flagship of the XI Legion battered and damaged but not destroyed. _Hrafnkel_ was destroyed, pieces of it meeting the atmosphere and crashing into the planet. He saw other ships in the sky… ships from the IV and XII Legions with more emerging into realspace.

"You really think I wouldn't have called for help?" Taranis' voice was cold and it reminded Russ of the blizzards on Fenris. "You really thought that no one would actually answer?" as he says that, two Giants approach.

"Farewell brother" he sounded solemn and regretful. "Take comfort, you will not be there to see Father's Imperium die."

Taranis brought the blade down and there was a flash of light that followed.

* * *

 _A few moments later..._

He wipes the blade clean of his brother's blood

Russ was dead, but he felt no joy at this fact.

He addresses his brothers, "The Ruinous Powers have subverted several of our brothers, I do not who in particular , but Warrior lodges are one of their many tools, make sure to deal with them in your own Legions."

"The Emperor, our father has labelled me very soon you two renegades."

He looks to his grim-faced brothers who seemed resolute and accepting of this fact.

"Whether we like it or not Civil War is inevitable." He pauses to look at the corpse of his brother.

"Did any of the Vlka Fenryka survive?"

"Yes, My lord." Taranis nods and then gestures toward Russ.

"Give the body to them, let them leave."

"My Lord?"

"Regardless of our stations and our current situation he was my brother, while I doubt he would have given me the same courtesy he will be granted it nonetheless." The Legionary salutes and two more join him as he carries the body of Russ, several more go to pick up the bodies of the great wolves that accompanied him.

Taranis looks to the Lord of Iron.

"Brother it is time to enact those measures on Olympia that we discussed long ago." Perturabo nods and leaves.

The XI Primarch looks out to his gene-forged sons, bloodied but standing at attention. Russ had taken a bloody toll from them and in the midst of this insanity many more may die.

"If our only choices are between the Imperium and Ruinous Powers… I say: We side with none of them, Humanity survived without the Emperor, it can survive without him."

He watched as a Thunderhawk of the Vlka Fenryka left the planet's atmosphere. He watched as it met with the last Battle-barge and entered the Immaterium.

"Let it all burn."

* * *

The nightmare fades and Malcolm Sibyl woke up screaming...

* * *

 **AN: Was it a proper vision? Or was Tzeentch screwing with Malcolm's head? up to you the result is still the same.**

 **No this doesn't happen, yes this vision/dream/nightmare is what spurs Malcolm Sibyl into looking into the future and looking at possibilities. Which in turn resulted in the Second Primarch into rebelling/ screwing with the Immaterium even after the Emperor told him not to, though to be fair: he basically ensured that this wouldn't happen.**

 **Now since this is less of a big story and more of a collection of info/snippets I'll say it now the adoptive parents of the XI Primarch are the AU versions of Oll Persson and Alivia Sureka. Oll ended up on the Primarch's homeworld because he was trying to get as far away from the other Perpetuals as he could, so he joined the colonization of a frontier planet. Thanks to the ripple in the Immaterium that Malcolm causes, Alivia convinces the future Emperor to seal the Warp gate on Molech rather than guard it, which freed her up to leave and ended up joining up with the same colonization without realizing Oll was there as well, they're also witnesses to how Primarch's world devolved into complete anarchy.**

 **This also an excuse to make Albrecht's relationship with the Eldar** _ **very**_ **complicated. He ignores the Craftworlders, ignores the Exodites, helps the Harlequins ( the groups that are relatively friendly) since they helped him get back home and kill the Dark Eldar on sight due to his experiences on Commorragh. While he has no hatred for the craftworlders (he can differentiate between groups) he can hold a grudge, since they hunt down perpetuals and two of them are parental figures to him…**

 **I did read Tabletop rules for Leman Russ and wow he just tears through the Primarch's likes its no ones business, and even in the novels he's still up there in terms of skills as a warrior. So how do I justify the XI Primarch (who I gave little to no characterization so far) killing him in a bad future? Not sure if it's good enough answer, he gets shot up repeatedly before they fight each other, so Russ enters the fight wounded while the Albrecht enters the fight relatively unscathed.**


	6. Snippet 4

**AN: What Inspired me to start this up was the Templin Institute's video on the Imperium and surprisingly enough a** _ **Star Wars: Republic Commando Soundtrack.**_ **Go on Youtube and search** _ **Vode An Gra'tua Cuun Ka'rta Tor**_ **if your curious, it's three soundtracks edited into a single video.**

 **In a response to the most recent review: The Previous snippet was the averted bad future, though some of it stays accurate such as Angron and Perturabo being close friends with Albrecht... going off tangent. The XI Legion does prefer ranged combat but are no slouches in close quarters with their combat knives and other melee weapons, it's just that the other Melee focused legions are better than them in comparison.**

* * *

 _"Alas, for them, the warriors of caged thunder and with whom lightning smote, they have burned the brightest in glory, but burned ever brief."-_ Remembrancer Dolvar on the Thunder Warriors (paraphrased)

 _"Not yet... your story does not end here."_ \- supposedly attributed to the Emperor of Mankind upon surveying the battlefield where XVI Thunder Legion fell.

* * *

 _Terra, Unification War_

Across the plain stood the Army of the dreaded Pan-Pacific Empire.

The only force arrayed against them was the XVI Thunder Legion led by their Commander, Valerian Taranis

"There is no support coming sir, we fight the Tyrant alone."

Communications with the rest of the Imperial Army had been cut off, presumably by the forces of the Tyrant.

One of Valerian's subordinates looked to the man himself.

"We were meant to die, weren't we sir?"

Valerian sighed, as he was forced to confront the awful truth again. The signs were there, a few of their comrades were already in the throes of genetic degradation. Requesting for more warriors to replenish the ranks were denied and there were standing orders to take scientists prisoners. Valerian had heard rumors of how the Emperor had devoted time to create new warriors, he dismissed it then as he saw no reason to care when there was a war to be fought.

Maybe he was building our replacements.

"I'm afraid so, Heruk." Heruk simply nodded.

"I would have loved to have seen his dream come true, it is why we chose to fight for him, why we chose to become who we are now." he says.

Valerian nods, he himself had remembered the impassioned speech of a unified Terra, of a better future than what they could see. It was dream worth fighting for, it was worth dying for.

It was as clear a day as it could be on Terra, clearer than it had ever been since the Emperor embarked on unifying Terra. It was a sign of Terra's recovery from the long nightmare, or it could have been a trick of the mind. The five millennia of anarchy. Despite victories against his allies, Dume still stood as one of the biggest threats to their sworn lord his army and monstrosities causing naught but havoc.

It was time to fix that problem or die trying.

He wondered what his brother Arik would have done in this situation, He is the best of the Thunder Warriors and maybe he could have seized victory in this situation. Valerian knew he could destroy the army arrayed in front of him… but what makes him hesitate for but a moment is knowing that death approaches for all of them if they did.

Valerian sighs, "Come then, it is time to meet our fate."

His subordinate nods before following.

"Brothers! There is no retreat, we stand alone." Valerian looked upon his brothers.

"Before us stand the forces of the Mad Tyrant, gaze upon them but fear them not!"

Half-mad, half-genius that was one all needed to say to describe the leader of the Pan Pacific Empire. Of all the Emperor's foes only Narthan Dume was able to forge an army capable of proactively combating the The Emperor's creations. But his genius did not just lay in building an army, from the distance Valerian could see the mutated monstrosities that looked as if they had been drudged up from one's worst nightmares. Bizarre tanks cobbled together from salvaged vehicles long destroyed, crude but effective at it's task.

"The truth is brothers... we are dying." Valerian could hear the sound of gasp being abruptly cut off, while some of his brothers looked stoically resigned.

Some had already succumb to what was originally thought of as an illness, but the medics confirmed that all of them would eventually suffer the same fate. It was just their luck them had been dying so early.

"Mayhaps he made a mistake when creating us, maybe we were simply lacking..." Others look hurt or even betrayed by that statement and murmurs could be heard amidst the assembled soldiers.

"It matters not." confusion reigned for a moment, how could it not matter? They were going to die regardless of if they win or lose. It went on for a moment until the senior officers reigned in their men.

"Do you remember we chose to become who we are? We all know how horrible life was like before the Emperor emerged? I do, I remember how scared I was that the Unspeakable king would take me away, of how my family could have been killed or how scared I was at the thought of looking up at the sky to see the Roma of Ursh coming down to raze my home to the ground."

Many were remembering their lives before the became who they were, of the hell that was Terra. Then, he came. He spoke of a unified Terra where warlords such the Unspeakable king or Ethnarchs of Caucasus could be a thing of the past... That if they were willing to take up arms he would equip and train them and under his leadership they would cast them down.

So they did and took the mantle of Thunder Warrior, and now here they are facing the worst of the Terran warlords.

"Why did he make us knowing that we could die a slow and painful death? It is because of monsters like the Tyrant before us!" Valerian points at the Army of Narthan Dume. There was understanding in their eyes now and in a few grim acceptance.

"If it is our fate to die, than so be it. We will take the Enemy with us!" As Valerian surveyed his men he could see, they had all accepted the fact that they were going to die, all the better if they could take one of the Emperor's greatest rivals out with them.

"For the Emperor!" following the warcry, the Warriors of the Sixteenth Thunder Legion charged at their enemy with reckless abandon.

* * *

They fell upon them with such fury it had to be seen to have been believed.

Stunned by the audacity of a smaller force outright attacking them, charging them no less. The Thunder Warriors had truly caught them by surprise and Dume's Army had paid for it dearly. The Thunder Warriors open fired as they charged the Pan-Pacific Army. Not a single shot missed, Bolter rounds and Volkite beams found their mark in the bodies of their enemies, the acidic payload of the bolt shells ripping through the enemy formation and volkite beams igniting flesh. Krak Missiles streaked through the air and destroyed the advancing enemy armor and robotic constructs.

When the Thunder Warriors ran out of bullets, the went for their knives and their swords. When their swords and knives broke they resorted to their hands. But it wouldn't end so easily.

When they got over original shock, Dume's Army mounted a proper counter attack and the Thunder Warrior casualties started mounting.

Yet...

The Thunder Warriors kept fighting, for every one of theirs that fell the rest would throw themselves upon the enemy with renewed and maddened zeal. Despite being surrounded in less than half an hour the battle devolved into a frenzied melee with many units of the Pan-Pacific's army fleeing, what became a trickle turned into a rout, none of Dume's officers could rally and reorganize the army. What shattered the army was the confrontation between the two commanders.

In the midst of the chaos and confusion the commanders of both sides met in the field. Valerian Taranis faced the Mad Tyrant himself. Dume himself had an unhinged look on his face, he wore armor not to dissimilar to the armor worn by a Thunder Warrior. They circled each other like predators. The fight itself was swift. He was distracted, angry almost frothing. Whereas Taranis was calm and had his sword at the ready.

Taranis lunged, Dume blocked with almost contemptuous ease. A swift exchange of blows followed, lightning-fast strikes parried countered or blocked by both combatants. Despite his madness, Dume was gaining the upper hand. Valerian's blade was unique, though it can be classified as a power weapon the power field itself was different. The Power field of his sword also emitted intense heat, while unable to mortally wound him, Taranis' blade was shearing off or melting pieces of Dume's Armor.

One of Dumes soldiers attacked Valerian from behind, distracting him enough for Dume to run him through, destroying his heart. but he was not dead, in response Valerian grabbed Dume by the arm trapping Dume's sword in his body. with the last of his strength he proceeded to cut off Dume's other arm.

Dume was screaming and thanks to the heat of Valerian's Power sword, the amputated stub was cauterized. Despite his strength, Dume could not set himself free from the grip of the dead Thunder Warrior. While he was not dead, to the rest of the Pan-Pacific Army it seemed as if he had fallen. Any resistance that was left was broken when Dume had fallen, the rest of the Pan-Pacific army fled.

Though the Pan-Pacific Army had been broken the Thunder Legion was decimated, only a handful had survived, Narthan Dume had eventually freed himself from the grip of the dead commander, only to find himself staring at the blades of the surviving Thunder Warriors.

* * *

It was the first time in the conflict of the Unification Wars that a Thunder Warrior Regiment had been slain to a man, but not before seizing victory.

Valerian Taranis, Commander of the XVI Thunder Legion died, not knowing that the one who created him had witnessed everything.

* * *

 **Informal Info-Dump**

So in case you were wondering the future XI Legion (and by extension it's Primarch) are at its very core are Astartes who the Emperor purposely modified their Primarch and Gene-seed further to match Thunder Warriors at their prime while lacking the short lifespan (Emperor alters their modifications and ends up with the exact opposite) genetic and mental degradation.

At the very basic, Albrecht is the Thunder Warrior to the other Primarch's Space Marine. Though thanks to Malcolm's messing the warp his situation is more complicated.

Not sure if this counts as a significant drawback but the XI Legion has a much higher Gene-seed rejection rate compared to the other Legions, So say each Astartes Legion has 10 candidates, For the XI Legion out of those ten: four or five could potentially reject the XI Legion's Gene-seed, this also plays a part in their combat doctrine which starts favoring more defeat in detail compared to the other Legions.

Had Several ideas for names, still debating between several:

 **The Stormhost** (Reference to Thunder Warriors, cursory research made me realize this is also a term used to refer to the Stormcast Eternals in _Age of Sigmar_ )

 **Astral Wardens** (Made this up, not sure if there's an actual chapter/ someone who wrote an OC Legion with the same name.)

 **The Reforged** (A reference to the Thunder Warriors and where they get their recruits)

 **Steel Wardens**

My more favored ones are the Reforged and the Steel Wardens due to the symbolism i came up with. Reforged refers to the Idea that they're repurposed thunder warriors.

Steel Wardens has more meaning. For their background: The Terran-born XI Legionaries come from the Ironside Clans Old Albia, these Ironside Soldiers opposed the Emperor, fighting his forces to a bloody stalemate. It took the Emperor making an impassioned speech to convince them to lay down arms and join the Imperium which they did. To make steel you need to add Carbon to Iron or in this case Astartes Augmentations to Ironside Clan recruits. Warden is actually a reference to the Grey Wardens from _Dragon Age,_ Elite warriors who fight to protect humanity and in most cases at the cost of their lives.

There were other names I came up like Lightning Bearers (Which was another reference to the Thunder Warriors) with but cursory research had me finding someone who had written up an Lost Astartes Legion with the same name so I dropped it because it felt weird to use it. Another was the Steel Legion which had too much similarity to the Armageddon Steel Legion (even if it doesn't exist at that point in the setting)

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Now admittedly the first part may come across a praising the Emperor, it's meant to showcase a near-fanatical loyalty that the XVI have for him. All i can find on Terra before the Unification War was that life was horrible for average person, it's not a huge stretch to assume such a thing would make it easy for the Emperor to convince/find recruits. This Loyalty also translated into instilling a stronger sense of discipline into them.**

 **The Emperor was originally going to give Albrecht the name Belisarius Taranis.**

 **Belisarius was the original name I intended for the XI Primarch as a reference to the Byzantine/Roman General, who was posthumously referred to as the Last of the Romans, in this case it was supposed to be reference to the fact that XI Primarch was technically the last Thunder Warrior as the Emperor went as far as to add more modifications to Albrecht that were akin to a Thunder Warrior.**

 **Then I remembered that Belisarius Cawl was a person in 40k which made me shelve this idea as well as remembering that there was Navigator House Belisarius and lost motivation to use that name.**


	7. Snippet 5

**AN: This takes place a few years after the Last Snippet.**

 **Responding to the same reviewer, huh never really thought of it that way, as mentioned before this was inspired by the Templin Institute's Video on the Imperium of Man and to some degree the** _ **Horus Heresy**_ **novels, I guess in a way they are Proto-Primaris marines. Not the way I meant to do things but now that I've thought it over that's technically true.**

 **I am going with "Storm Wardens" as their name for several reasons:**

 **One, They're based in future Segmentum Obscurus, Canon!Storm Wardens are located in the Calixus Sector and there were several minor yet extremely dangerous Xenos species that the XI Legion going to deal with in the Imperium fashion (Read: Kill them all or try very hard to get close to it).**

 **Two, Albrecht conquers Northern Obscurus in this AU, meaning that Canon!Storm Wardens won't exist**

 **Three, The name "Tempest Blades" is admittedly a nice sounding name for one of the unit formations that they get.**

 **On a final note: Maybe I was too obvious but the Raptor Imperialis (First Image when googled) will be their Sigil, but their veterans of the Unification Wars paint their Symbol gold (The only decorative ornamentation they wear on their armor)**

* * *

 _Terra, site of the future Palace_

The Sigilite was confused, after the destruction of the Sixteenth Thunder Regiment, the Emperor devoted more time to his Primarch Project, working away in the labs on the second generation. He had completed it at as far a Malcador was aware, enough so that he had directly intervened when he learned of how the Imperial Army was locked in a stalemate with Old Albia. Impressed by the capabilities of the Albians the Emperor ordered a ceasefire and negotiations. By the end they had willingly joined the Imperium.

But then Tragedy struck, for reasons unknown a warp rift opened up in the Emperor's laboratories, where he kept the gestation pods of the Primarchs. According to the Emperor they had been scattered across the stars, as such he ordered for the last of the twenty planned Legiones Astartes to be built.

Like many things, for reasons unknown he had ordered the Eleventh Legion to be prioritized in terms of recruitment. At first there was no issue, there were many potential recruit so simply gathering ten thousand was a simple task.

Recruits were taken from all parts of Imperial Held Terra: Merica, Old Albia, the Nordyc, Tupelov of Ursh even drawing from the handful Xerican tribals .

Then it all went wrong, out of the ten-thousand candidates less than three thousand survived the process. Malcador had remembered that the Emperor wanted them established before the others so he had the geneticists look into the Eleventh Legion Gene-seed. There were definitely mutations compared to the other Astartes Gene-seeds but the Emperor had already left record of the mutations and aside from the known mutations there was nothing amiss.

Malcador set aside the Dataslate and picked up a different one.

He looked at the problem from the other angle, why did less than three thousand survive the initial process? He had looked at all of the collected data on the survivors , he noticed that only the Albian, Tupelovian and Xeric Tribal candidates survived.

Malcador frowned.

The whole point of diversifying candidates for each legion was to avoid them creating an identity without their Primarch. All of the Tupelovian Candidates had already been implanted so there are no spares, The XI was given all the candidates they could take from Xeric which were only a few hundred, more eligible candidates would come but that would not be for another decade, all that's left are the Ironside Clansmen from Old Albia who were meant to reinforce the Eighth and Tenth Legions.

And that was the problem.

Old Albia was one of the Imperium's stronger rivals, second to Narthan Dume, while the Ethnarchs of Caucasus could count as a threat they were not a immediate threat as they preferred hiding in their underground cities. Dividing them amongst the legions was priority but now it seems he's going to have gather them to form this Legion as they seem to be the only ones who've consistently survived the implantation process.

He had taken one look at the Gene-seed of the Eleventh and he immediately realized what made them different from others. Their modifications were akin to that of the Thunder Warriors rather than Astartes. It was clear that the Emperor had refined the Thunder Warrior Implants and integrated it when working on the Eleventh Primarch. The mutation of their gene-seed must have been a side-effect of integrating Thunder Warrior modifications.

He was trying to repurpose a sledgehammer into a great-sword.

To begin with the Ossmodula was mutated, rather than the standard fusing process their bones grow and harden to be almost twice as durable than the intended effect. The only way to describe their Larraman's organ would be to say that it's overstimulated, in theory if the implanted Astartes in question was the verge of death the Larraman's organ would go into overdrive, instead of rapidly sealing wounds it would rapidly healing them and unleashing a surge of adrenaline into the system of the Astartes.

Now there were potentially negative mutations, the Catalepsian node is mutated, The implanted Astartes would have to sleep for longer than average time. The Omaphagia has outright degraded from the integration and the Betcher's gland mutated resulting in the generated acid working only on inorganic materials

One of the few saving graces was that the Gene-seed of the Eleventh had a lower restriction in terms of age, several of the successful candidates were in their early thirties and the average age of surviving candidates was in the early twenties. Aside from the mild surprise on the lack of oversight on the candidates age it was a welcoming boon.

Despite these mutations and degradation in organs, on paper this was an Astartes that could potentially be deadly if not more so than the others, and that was what worried him as most of their recruits come from a people who not only acted as the feared enforcers of warlords that rivaled Narthan Dume but a force that outright challenged the Imperium and forced it to back down.

Up until the Emperor spoke with them the Albians were fiercely independent and insisted they would bow to no one.

And now?

Now they bow to the Emperor, Malcador was not certain of their loyalty and wanted them to be split up amongst the Legions rather than concentrated into a single force. He knew the Emperor would not care for such things, if majority of the Eleventh had to be composed of Albians the Emperor would allow it. He did not care for such politics.

Malcador had to send out a few messages and have several of the Officer candidates sent to him.

* * *

Amadeus was confused.

He was originally assigned to join the Tenth Legion, several of his comrades had already gone through the process and were now training with the rest of the Tenth.

Then before the implantation process could begin he and many others were yanked out, now he was waiting in a room.

Then a man entered the room, based off of his appearance, DuCaine believed he was a scientist, most likely one of the geneticists responsible for overlooking the Astartes creation process.

What surprised him was the information he started rattling off.

'Amadeus DuCaine, son of General Roland DuCaine, Age: Twenty-one. Like all youths the Rulers of Albia had you conscripted into the Army. Began training at the age of fourteen, Shortly after completion of training your father and a number of other Albian Generals overthrew the Unspeakable King's descendants. Participated in the first defence of Albia against the Imperial Army at the age of Seventeen, due to the deaths of all military officers in your theatre of the defence, you were placed in charge.'

That was not what DuCaine expected to hear. It had only been two years since Albia had surrendered to the Imperium, there was still stigma aimed at the veteran Ironside Soldiers faced for inflicting so much damage on Imperial Army. He distinctly remembered being forced to use Rad Bombs and Phosphex in an attempt to drive back the Thunder Warrior Assault, it was successful but they lost a lot of men .

'The Gene-seed current Astartes Legions in service have a cut-off of age sixteen with eighteen years being the absolute limit. Any older and you face potential complications or even death.'

DuCaine's breath hitched, he was clearly over the cut-off age by three- no in a few days four years. Part of the reason he agreed to become a member of the Legiones Astartes was to better serve the Imperium.

'The Emperor has mandated that the next ten Legions be built. However complications have arisen with the Eleventh Legion resulting in a large number of their candidates dying. Thankfully however, more stringent procedures have allowed us to identify who can survive implantation, you were one of them.'

Could he take the man's words at face value? While he did hold pride in his heritage, he was well aware of the resentment his people faced, their deeds as subordinates of the Unspeakable King have yet to be truly forgiven, or even forgotten for that matter.

'Normally, we would just shunt you off into gene-labs to be implanted. However, the Legion has need of an officer corp, as ninety-five percent of the Officer Candidates had died due to complications during Implantation. You and other Officer potentials have been briefed as unlike the others you have a choice.'

DuCaine looked at the man as he spoke. 'You can either join the Tenth Legion and risk death via implantation or you can join the Eleventh Legion.'

DuCaine was puzzled,'Didn't you just say that most of the Eleventh Legion candidates died?' he asked. _Most likely via Implantation_ was what he wanted to say.

The Scientist nods having noticed the unspoken question,'yes they did, I also said that we had created a more stringent procedure to ensure that we can identify who can survive, your name came up.' he says.

'The last thing to note, the oldest candidate in the Eleventh Legion was in his Thirties and most of the surviving candidates were in their twenties.'

The decision was made as soon as DuCaine heard the last sentence.

* * *

 _Caucasus Wastes, Final years of the Unification Wars._

It's been almost a decade since Amadeus was implanted and made a member of the Legiones Astartes.

DuCaine was surprised at how many Albians were members of the Eleventh, he even recognized a few from the city he grew up in. He had learned which legions his countrymen had went, some entered the Eighth Legion, others like a number of his friends ended up in the Tenth who became known as the Storm Walkers. The Eleventh was the biggest concentration of Albians followed by the Fourteenth who took the name Dusk Raiders. All three Legions took different aspects of Ironside Battle-craft.

They had done many things in the past decade, subduing rogue tribes in Jermani, besieging and taking Vhnori one of the last holdouts of the Late Narthan Dume's Empire. Hunting down the last of that thrice-damned Kalagann's Daemon cults.

Now, here they were the "Bloody Eleventh" another names that others had started calling them as while they did not fight in every single campaign, every battle they did take part in had the fiercest fighting.

Now here they were, preparing to deploy via Termite Drills to breach the shields of the Caucasus Wastes. He should not question it, but he could not help but wonder why they and the Eighteenth a relatively untested Legion were being deployed for something so important, DuCaine could tell that some of the Imperial Officers did not like the decision and knew they could not question it.

'Once more unto the breach.' Amadeus mutters as boarded the Termite Assault Drill.

The Assault Drills were launched, and started burrowing underground.

...Right into the depths of a hell that Amadeus didn't know existed.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Amadeus DuCaine is a canon character. He was the Legion Master of the Storm Walkers, more commonly known as the future Iron Hands Legion, DuCaine perished at Dropsite massacre after seeing his Primarch die. AU!DuCaine ended up being drafted into the Eleventh Legion because they needed recruits and the Emperor wanted them to be fully established, compared to the Tenth Legion who were in this AU replenishing losses.** **Admittedly the only reason I picked him even though he's a canon character is because early on I had read up on the Unification and decided that either Tupelov of Ursh or Ironside Clans of Old Albia would be the main pool of recruits for the Eleventh and DuCaine was Albian.**

 **The Storm Warden Legion Colors are the Dusk Raider Color scheme Storm Grey with their right gauntlets painted crimson (the Dusk Raiders are the future Death Guard, they draw recruits from place, Albia) and got along well with the Dusk Raiders up until they became the Death Guard (One-sided hatred between Mortarion and Albrecht due to Albrecht being Psychic). After they meet their Primarch the crimson gauntlet is painted blue to honor their Primarch. (Albrechts Color Aesthetic is Dark Grey and Blue)**

 **AU version of the Eleventh ends up participating in the Assault on the Tempest Galleries which was a originally a solo operation turned into a Joint operation for this AU. With two Astartes Legions the Eleventh and the Eighteenth (better known as the Salamanders) The assault is successful like in canon, but they suffer heavy losses in return.**

 **VIII Legion = Future Night Lords and XIV Legion = Future Death Guard, The Members of the XI Legion tend to be nicer than those guys which ... isn't saying much.**

 **On a final note, the next 'chapters' are going to be overview entries rather than narrative snippets one that'** **s planned to be published soon is the overview of the battle mentioned in the last lines of this snippet.**

 **02/06/2019 Edit: DuCane was a mispelling on my part it's actually DuCaine.**


	8. Amadeus DuCaine

**AN:**

 **Very Short but I wasn't going to add this to the overview of a battle.**

 **The Overview entries are going to be short**

 **I was originally going to post an entry on the Assault on Tempest Galleries and ended up fleshing out DuCaine's Character.**

 **So Albrecht is found at about 820, M31. I'm thinking of doing an overview entry for him.**

 **Name:** Amadeus DuCaine

 **Rank:** Legion Master of the Storm Wardens (XI)

Captain of the Second Company (Former)

* * *

 **Flaws**

At times DuCaine is often considered Stone-hearted, cold and merciless when facing the enemies of the Imperium, some have accused him of being dishonourable due to his Legion's open use of Destroyer Squadrons, but such accusations have often rung hollow as none can deny his willingness nor that of his Legion to thrown themselves into the fray.

* * *

 **Personality**

Considered amiable amongst his subordinates, the Commander of the Eleventh has often been described as a "No-nonsense commander" whereas several of his peers in other Legions see glory on the battlefield, DuCaine often sees a task to be done, nothing more and nothing less, an attitude that seems to be shared amongst the rank and file of the Eleventh. When the task is done DuCaine orders the Eleventh onto the next battlefield with not a single complaint coming from his legion.

* * *

 **Biography**

Amadeus DuCaine was born to Roland DuCaine a General in the Albian Army. After being chosen as a candidate for the Legiones Astartes, DuCaine was assigned to the Eleventh Legion. Due to his prior experience in leading Soldiers, DuCaine was assigned to the Officer Corp of the Eleventh. He rose through the ranks rapidly attaining the rank of Captain a few years into his service, DuCaine serving diligently as an Astartes of the Eleventh Legion.

DuCaine is the youngest Astartes to attain the rank of Legion Master at the age of Thirty-one. During the Assault on the Tempest Galleries most of the Commanders in the Eleventh were killed in action, DuCaine rallied the remains of Eleventh and achieved the objective before escaping.

As the most senior officer alive and already the De-facto Leader of the Eleventh, DuCaine was made the Legion Commander. He served diligently, after being brought back up to their original strength the Eleventh would participate in several notable combat actions such as the First Pacification of Luna and the Vhnori Resurgence with the Eleventh providing support for both actions.

Shortly thereafter DuCaine and the Eleventh were ordered to accompany the Emperor of Mankind to Mars. It was there that he and the Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes would thwart a plot by radicals of the Mechanicum to assassinate the Emperor. For his actions and at the recommendation of Constantin Valdor, The Emperor rewarded DuCaine with the Aquila Imperator, a ceremonial Cuirass with a brass eagle spreading its wings as if to take flight across the breastplate and another rising from the backplate as a headguard to be worn over his power armor. It was also fitted with a conversion field not unlike the ones in an Iron Halo.

They would not do anything more notable until the Seraphina Offensive during the Great Crusade. DuCaine was placed in command of entire battle group composed of his legion, several regiments of Urshan Velites and four cohorts from the Legio Cybernetica. DuCaine achieved victory and seized the Planet designated "Rust" it was at this battle that the Eleventh was referred to as the "Storm Wardens" after repelling several Greenskin attempts of taking back Rust.

DuCaine and the Storm Wardens would serve admirably earning the respect of Primarch's Horus Lupercal and Ferrus Manus. Thirteen years later and no less then a few weeks after the Censure of the Second Primarch, The Emperor orders the entirety of Storm Wardens to gather at Medusa and travel with him Northwards, beyond the frontier of known Imperial Space…

* * *

 **Wargear:**

Artificer Armor

Integrated Nuncio Vox

Archaeotech Pistol

Frag Grenades

Albian Broadsword (Power Sword)

Aquila Imperator (Iron Halo)

Bionic Eye

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Was thinking of adding Shadrak Smyth aka: Canon!Shadrak Meduson to the ranks of the Eleventh, mostly because he and DuCaine know each other in canon.**

 **Albrecht will have parallels with many of his brothers, Carved out a galactic power (Roboute Guilliman), Legion fights on what is arguably the Frontier/ outskirts of the Imperium for a long period of time (Jaghatai Khan). Familiar with the Immaterium (Magnus the Red) Weariness of uncontrolled Psykers (Mortarion... sort of he lacks the outright (and in a way justifiable) hatred)**


	9. Overview 1 (Notable Battles)

**AN: I write all this in Microsoft Word and it's only recently that i've discovered that how badly doc manager can occasionally jumble/screw up words.**

 **was originally an overview on the Assault on the Tempest Galleries ended up becoming an overview of three notable battles.**

 **To the Guest Reviewer: Heresy still happens, I've always been of the opinion that a Civil War (Chaos-influenced or not) in the Imperium was going to be inevitable, to give you an idea of one change here's a hint: the Praetorian of Terra isn't the only one fortifying the Palace and it's not the Eleventh Primarch.**

* * *

 **Assault on the Tempest Galleries**

" _"They shall not fail me, they will return from the fire, thus it shall ever be." -_ The Emperor of Mankind

" _If Hell existed then the Tempest Galleries was clearly a part of it" –_ Legion Master Amadeus DuCane

* * *

The Assault on Tempest Galleries was one of the Last battles of the Unification Wars. The Ethnarchy of Caucasus Wastes had proved themselves a constant thorn in the side of the nascent Imperium of Man. The first campaign against the Ethnarchs ended in failure, forcing the Emperor to withdraw.

Now years later with most of Terra unified under one banner the last obstacle was the Ethnarchy. The major issue with attacking them were the massive energy fields that protected their underground cities, It had allowed the forces of the Ethnarch to defend themselves with impunity while the besiegers attempted assaults were rendered impotent.

After discussing his plan of attack with Imperial Army, Constantin Valdor the Captain General of the Custodes urged the Emperor to send more than just the recently formed Eighteenth Legion. Deciding not to ignore his Captain-General's suggestions the Emperor also deployed entirety of the Eleventh Legion to join the Assault.

Once more the Imperial Commanders protested, while the Eleventh Legion had been committed to several small campaigns such as taking Vhnori and had recently crushed the Ethnarch's Ur-Khasis Soldiers they were still relatively untested, Valdor would suggest sending other Legions such as the First Legion but the Emperor was adamant on his choices and could not be swayed.

With both Legions assembled, the saluted the Emperor before boarding the newly-built Termite Assault Drills. By some unknown providence not single transport had been destroyed during the transit. When they got out of their transports, they found themselves in a place that could only be described as alien. Vast spindle-machines turned over caged seas of molten metal drawn from the planet's core, spewing forth coronas of blinding lightning while suspended on webs across which unfathomable and inhuman machines that scuttled around like spiders.

Then the machines noticed their presence and attacked. Much to their shock and horror, bolter fire, volkite and Plasma found no real purchase on the Automata only heavily concentrated fire could bring it down but they lack the munitions to do so. Thousands of these Automata surged forth in an unceasing and implacable assault.

The Battles in the galleries lasted for days, but the Astartes pushed through the galleys, detonating tunnels as they passed through them. But as they pushed on the fighting got more desperate. With some having run out of ammunition there were many cases of Astartes hurling themselves at the advancing machines in an attempt to destroy them or stall for time.

As the battles progressed the Legionaries of the Eighteenth realized that only heavy kinetic force was capable of disabling the machines. While the Eleventh had during the chaotic fighting found a solution by locating control systems of the Automata and crudely rewiring the machines to go on a berserk rampage before pointing them towards the advancing automata.

Even as casualties mounted the Legionaries started fighting back., Members of the Eleventh Legion had salvaged metal plates to replace pieces of their damaged power armor, Members of the Eighteenth had used salvage materials to fashion crude weaponry while the members of the Eleventh started rewiring circuitry in the galleys to create death traps for the Machines. The Eighteenth had improved the method of reprogramming machines, by repairing them before throwing them back.

Thanks to these actions they had forced the situation into a bloody stalemate. But it came at a terrible cost, the Eleventh had more than half of their force killed off or wounded while the Eighteenth were brought down to a third. Worse still the force had been scattered and separated throughout the galleries.

Realizing that the machines possessed a factory that was pumping out more and more machines the Surviving officers had opted for a two-pronged assault, the first group would mount diversionary assaults while a second group would target what they believed was the central power node. Knowing that the second combat group would not make it back officers from both legion's had agreed to choose the second group through lottery as every single Astartes had offered to join the second group.

The Astartes gathered as many of their numbers as they could find and mounted a final desperate assault

Members of the Eighteenth had been able to salvage a significant amount of material, enough to fully equip the assembled warriors with Improvised Thunder Hammers and Power fists. While the Members of the Eleventh had created improvised Arc Weaponry. The Eleventh and Eighteenth Struck out from the holdouts and fortifications armed with improvised Thunder hammers, Power Axes, Power fists and Arc Weapons unleashing everything and holding nothing back. After an hour of brutal back and forth fighting, the Second combat group found the central power core. There was a large bridge and between them and the core were hundred of massive automata. Undaunted the Second Combat Group charged forth. They had just reached the power core when _it_ emerged.

There were no words to describe it other than a large monstrosity made of metal , it most certainly dwarfed over the Imperial Titans. The second combat group was certain they were about to meet their ends, their mission failed.

The day was saved by the members of the First Combat group, during their diversionary assault, three squadrons had disabled and took control of the tunneling spheres used by the machines, said spheres were crashed into the giant metallic monstrosity, destroying it at the cost of their lives. The resulting explosion destroying the power core and the survivor's began their retreat.

* * *

Meanwhile on the surface, many Imperial Commanders expressed doubt on the survival of the Astartes as days had gone by since they had mounted their assault. But when they brought their concerns to the Emperor he dismissed them, and no sooner than when he had said that the power fields defending the underground cities collapsed and the Imperial attacked.

In the aftermath of the battle there was no sign of either Legions until Several Termite's emerged from a dormant volcano.

While Victorious both Legions suffered significant casualties: for the Eleventh only a little over five thousand survived while of the Eighteenth less than four thousand survived, leaving about nine thousand of the original forty thousand alive. The Emperor gathered the survivors and gifted them the Laurels of Victory (to the protest of the other Imperial Commanders) and a battle honour. For the Eleventh it was battle honour granted to them by the Emperor himself, for the Eighteenth it was an honor given to them in their first battle. The Emperor inscribed the following words: _In Fire and Darkness Tested, None Shall Find Them Wanting._

It is one of the few honours that the Eleventh Legion wore with pride and still do even after the other legions eclipsed their accomplishments and it was from this battle that both Legions would forever after refer to each other as their sworn brothers.

* * *

 **The Vhnori Resurgance**

 _"Send the Eighth! Deploy the Eleventh!"_ – Attributed to the Emperor of Mankind ordering the respective Astartes Legions to attack the city of Vhnori and the Crimson Walker's Rampaging army respectively

 _"It was like seeing the old nightmare come alive again." -_ Unknown Remembrancer

* * *

By the End of the Unification War Terra was united, but it did not last forever. The Old Night, the era of death and Anarchy had decided that the Emperor's attempts and censuring that horrible era could not be forgotten. While the Imperium began looking to the stars.

The Crimson Walkers worked silently, biding their time and mastering their abilities with molding flesh as well as their sorcerous abilities.

It began several months after the Emperor Embarked on the Great Crusade

Much to the Horror of the Imperial Governor of Vhnori the citizens welcomed the Crimson Walkers back with an almost slavish glee. The Vhnori overthrew the Imperial Governor and the Crimson Walkers unleashed Flesh-golems and mutants killing them. They then ordered bodies of the Governor and those of the Imperial garrison dragged through the streets before using them to create more flesh golems.

It was said that when the Emperor had heard of the appearance of the Crimson Walkers he ordered the Eighth and Eleventh Legions to return to Terra and suppress the rebellion. The main reason for this was because of the Eighths preference for Terror Tactics and Guerrilla Warfare and the Eleventh were sent because they were responsible for taking the city near the end of the Unification Wars.

in the intervening months The Crimson Walkers unleashed their army of horrors upon remote areas across Terra, wreaking havoc and destruction that had not been seen since the Old Night. For the Emperor and his Veteran officers the After-Action reports of the battle between the Crimson Walker's Army and the Eleventh Legion was akin to a re-enactment of the battle between the Sixteenth Thunder Regiment and the Narthan Dume's Forces.

Unlike that battle however, the Eleventh had completely and utterly destroyed the enemy. The Eleventh suffered moderate casualties but had little to no fatalities, their Legion Master DuCaine lost his eye killing the last of the Walker's Flesh-Golems.

After the Eleventh had defeated the Army of the Crimson Walkers before deploying at Vhnori, cordoning off the city. Being of ill humor at the reminder of what life on Terra was like during the Old Night, the Legionnaires of the Eleventh held no reservations in gunning down anyone who attempted escape while the Eighth Rampaged across the city itself in a campaign of terror.

As a final stroke, the Eighth and Eleventh set charges and detonated them, causing the city of Vhnori to go plummeting down the chasm it stood over. Killing tens of millions. Some may have called their actions inhumane or even monstrous, but for many it was naught but a reminder that the terrors of the Old Night would never be tolerated.

* * *

 **Battle of Rust**

 _"The Hammer falls, Kill. Them. All."_ \- Legion Master Amadeus DuCaine

* * *

The Orks of the 'Krooked-Klaw' Empire held onto a territory of more than sixty inhabited star systems in the northeastern quadrant of space. The Planet designated "Rust" had been made into a slave mining colony comprising millions of Orks and a vast population of human slaves. It was designated by the Emperor as one of the primary targets of the Crusade, and eleven of the Legiones Astartes and hundreds of combat groups from the Imperial Army were mobilized for the operation, known as the Seraphina Offensive.

While the Offensive itself targeted the entire Krooked Klaw Empire, it fell to the Eleventh Legion to liberate the strategic world of Rust. They were supported by several battle groups of the Urshan Velites Imperial Army and the effort was to be led by Legion Master Amadeus DuCaine

DuCaine formulated a plan of attack which owed much to what he would later refer to as the Hammer and Storm tactic of Albia. After forcing an orbital landing, DuCaine ordered the Urshan soldiers to make planetfall in full strength. He had them form up in a triangular deployment zone between the three largest Ork settlements and dig in and fortify. In this they successfully 'raised the storm'; as the Orks bestirred in their millions by the attack from the above.

Within hours of the battle a bloodbath had erupted, and DuCaine did not allow the embattled Urshan Velites to retreat but did allow them receive reinforcements in the form of several of the Eleventh Legion's Heavy Gunner Squadrons.

The Orks were bloodthirsty and itching for a fight, as a result the attacking Greenskins were a large, disorderly mass surging forth in an attempt to crush the humans.

It was then that DuCaine had dropped the metaphorical hammer.

He deployed the rest of the Eleventh Legion, landing by gunship and assault landers to blast through the Orks. The Astartes landed with Land Raiders as well as Malcador Tanks from the Armored Regiments from the Imperial Army. After the Basilisk Artillery was deployed, The Eleventh advanced forward as a single slow-moving mass, the Legion destroyed everything in its path with its massed firepower.

The Eleventh Legion beat off several reckless yet massive Ork counter-attacks until the Greenskins ran out of both bodies and machines. The Eleventh Legion itself had only taken less than a eighth of its number in casualties, far lower than the earlier projections and even the commanders had expected more blood to have been spilt.

* * *

 **AN: Yeah.. the last two notable battles are short in terms of descriptors.**

 **They were in the process of making reinforcements when they participated in this action, They had actually manage to scrounge up an additional 15,000 Astartes candidates for the Eleventh to bolster their numbers due to the fact that they had been mostly successful during their early deployments. So their losses weren't necessarily crippling for the Eleventh, but it was still painful.**

 **The Tempest Galleries was one of the main reasons for why the Eleventh Legion shifted to Quality vs Quantity mentality, they are aware of their Gene-seed rejection rates, so they are aware of how much more painful casualties are for them compared to other Legions (not counting Thousand Sons and Emperor's Children). This is also why they suffer less and less casualties over time, they become more mindful.**


	10. Notable Terran Astartes

**These are just very short overviews on the notable Terran-born members of the Eleventh barring their Legion Master, these are the guys among the Terran-born whom Albrecht will interact with most.**

 **So I decided to look at the new Primaris models coming out… goddamnit the appearance of the Primaris Eliminators was basically how I picture the Eleventh Legion's Hunter Squadrons/Seeker Analogues.**

 **So yeah I'll go over Legion units soonish.**

* * *

 **Notable XI Legion Personnel (Great Crusade, Terran Born)**

 **Castiel Kyran**

 _Master of the Forge_

Terran-Born, Castiel Kyran was exiled from the Lastrum-Core Clans of Terra, fleeing what could have been a potential execution. When it was found out that he was an Astartes Candidate he joined up and was assigned to the Eleventh Legion.

Castiel was considered a failure among the Lastrum Clans, but he was more than aware of the complex gunsmithing techniques of the Clan. Castiel was sent to Mars early becoming the first of the Eleventh Legion;s Techmarines. With the knowledge acquired from his time on Mars and his additional knowledge on Lastrum's Gunsmithing, Castiel attempted to recreate some of the weapons made by his clan.

One his more notable projects was an attempt to recreate the Heliothermic rounds his clan makes for the Adeptus Custodes. Though unsuccessful Castiel nevertheless made several variants of bolter rounds such as a Prototype Seeker and Vengeance rounds as well as finding a method to better produce Scorpius rounds, allowing for more widespread usage among the Eleventh.

 **Millas Virikus**

 _Commander of the Heavy Armor_

Millas Virikus was an Astartes recruited a few years before the Battle of Rust. The Tenth Primarch, Ferrus Manus openly praised the Eleventh Legion's capabilities which lead to the Legion Master asking a boon of the Primarch, namely for help in training the operators of their Tanks. The Primarch agreed to doing so provided that they meet his strict standards. While most would fail to meet the Primarch's standards, Millas Virikus would be among the few that did.

After his training Virikus was known for commanding the Armored Columns of the Eleventh, From the Predator to the Fellblade, if it was a tank meant for frontline combat then Virikus knew how to best use it. The only ones who could be considered his peers were his cousins in the Tenth Legion.

 **Shadrak Smyth**

 _Captain of the Second Chapter, Adjutant of the Eleventh Legion_

Shadrak Smyth hails from Albia like most of the Rank and file of the Eleventh. Like DuCaine he was assigned to the Eleventh shortly after the deaths of over half of the Eleventh's candidates. Shadrak served under DuCaine when the Eleventh was tasked with hunting down the remnants of Kalagann's Daemon Cults, he was promoted into the officer corp in the aftermath of the Assault on the Tempest Galleries, when the Majority of the Eleventh Legion's officers were killed. Smyth performed well in his new role, and ended up as the de-facto commander during the first stage of the Battle of Rust.

Now Shadrak Smyth commands the second chapter of the Eleventh and was given the additional duties as DuCaine's Adjutant and the de-facto second in command.

 **Julius Churchill**

 _Commander of the Legionary Scouts_

Another veteran of the Unification Wars, Julius Churchill served in the Albian Army when the Imperium attacked, personally killing several of the Emperor's Thunder Warriors. Churchill was the oldest candidate (age of thirty-eight) to become part of the Eleventh. Churchill served diligently in the aftermath of the Assault of the Tempest galleries he would be placed in charge of training the incoming Astartes recruits as well as training the Legionary Scouts.

A dagger in the dark is just as effective as a boltgun on the battlefield, a concept that Churchill often impressed upon the Legion recruits. As a result of his training the Tactical Squadrons and Legionary Scouts of the Eleventh were often noted for their capabilities in asymmetrical warfare where they used less to achieve far more than their cousins in various campaigns.

 **AN:**

 **Not that many people, and admittedly not that much information i'll flesh this out in the future. These are just Notable Terran-born aside from the Legion Master, I plan on doing the Notable personnel from the Albrecht's Foster-world eventually.**

 **Churchill was inspired by the real-life soldier Jack Churchill or Mad Jack**

 **Millas Virikus was inspired somewhat by Knight-Commander Pask.**

 **Shadrak Smyth was the original name of one Shadrak Meduson of the Iron Hands Legion, chose to place him in the Eleventh when I remembered that he and Canon!DuCaine were close friends.**

 **Castiel was just someone I kinda made up, never really had an inspiration unless if you count me looking at the Custodes Wargear once**


	11. Overview 2 (Primarch's Nation)

**AN: Haven't posted anything in weeks so I decided to publish this entry, hopefully I fleshed things out enough to give you a rough idea of what Albrecht was involved with.**

 **Will add more in the future via another entry, was debating between unit formations of the Eleventh Legion and this and decided to go with this since i haven't published much about Albrecht or more specifically anything about him in general.**

 **Somewhat open to minor retcons as i'm not sure if an emerging human faction thats rediscovering Dark Age tech can survive a minor Ork Waaagh! (Might change constant raids)**

 **Kudo's to RoyalTwinFangs several of your suggestions were pretty helpful and it was much appreciated.**

* * *

 **Imperial Designation:** Markayn Coalition (with the discovery of the Eleventh Primarch, the Coalition territories would be integrated into the Imperium as tributary state and would henceforth be known as, "Imperium Obscurus" )

 **Capital Planet:** Ietania (Civilized world transitioning to Garden World due to Terraforming and environmental restoration)

 **Core Worlds:** Suur-Suona, Cortrela, Sarum, Munika, Panora, Ornsworld, Vostroya, Scintilla and Solomon . (All civilized worlds)

 **Location:** Segmentum Obscurus, Capital is located further North in the Markayn Marches

 **Species:** Human, Abhumans (Ogryn, Ratlings, Felinids)

 **Population:** Billions, (proper census has yet to be conducted by Imperial Authorities)

* * *

 **Early History**

Located on the fringe of the Galaxy, Ietania was originally a developing colony world of the Human Federation. Then the event known as the Age of strife occurred. Ietania was cut off from the rest of humanity, Warp storms erupted in the star system and strange creatures invaded the planet. The colonists were thrown into a long war with the creatures that eventually be referred to as Daemons.

When they struck, they killed millions. Despite the odds arrayed against them the surviving colonists were victorious and managed to banish the Daemons back to the Warp. Unfortunately less than a year after their victory, The survivors fell into infighting dividing themselves into what amounted to petty kingdoms.

* * *

 **Millennia** **of Internal Strife**

At the beginning there were many petty kingdoms that formed but as the millenia went on these kingdoms would be destroyed and absorbed until there were only a few left. Ietania's populace could be divided into several groups. The Kingdoms of Drusalis and Belgaria, two Technocratic states of Varadel and Gurin and the village communities caught in between these factions.

Drusalis and Belgaria have been locked into a stalemate for decades. Of the two Drusalis placed emphasis on discipline and martial capabilities. While the Kingdom of Belgaria took emphasis on the concept of knights and chivalry. Drusalis would press gang members of the village communities into their armies while Belgaria's entrenched nobility would cause issues for the arguably more noble kingdom.

The Gurin Technocracy takes advantage of the situation by supplying weapons and equipment to both sides. Varadel keeps itself isolated from the kingdoms while quietly helping the village communities caught between the warring factions and fighting what amounts to a shadow war with Gurin Technocracy. It was a long cycle that would last for thousands of years

* * *

 **The Xeno Incursions**

It would be in the backdrop of the Ietanian internal strife that Xenos would take advantage of the planet. The first to come were the Dark Eldar, who made frequent raids to take slaves.

Then came the Fra'al who sent envoys to the kingdom of Drusalis, there was no record of the meeting only that it's king now believed in some "Primordial Truth" Drusalis fell to infighting between the Royal family and the Nobility who were horrified by this new "truth", the kingdom fell into a state of Anarchy collapsing in itself in an orgy of blood and death.

Belgaria locked itself away closing it's borders despite pleas for support, for many Belgarians it was an unforgivable act to ignore the pleas of ancient allies, many deserted leaving to answer the calls for aid from the villages.

Then came the Rak'gol whom came for naught but slaughter, the Technocracy of Varadel had devoted much of its resources to fighting them, finally came the Greenskins seeking a fight and finding it among the Xenos and Daemons that now frequent the planet.

No less than a three years after the landfall of the Greenskins the Varadel Technocracy was destroyed and it's people scattered to the winds, The Gurin used their technological capabilities to lock themselves away, only leaving the shielded cities to find test subjects.

* * *

 **Driving out the enemy and Unification**

" _His arrival was heralded by a clasp of thunder, striking down all those who opposed him, there was a fury that could be felt behind his attacks, as if to prey on the helpless was a personal affront that he had to avenge…" –_ a survivor of a Dark Eldar Raid describing the individual who became known as the Warrior of Thunder

It began as a simple rumor that spread across the planet, someone was driving out the Xenos. Somehow in the midst of the Anarchy a new faction had emerged, the Village communities, Drusalis survivors , Belgarian Deserters and the Remnants of the Varadel Technocracy. All had banded together in the name of survival and to drive the enemy out.

The most notable figure was the mysterious individual he bore no name nor title, This man was always seen on the frontlines, often described as having a strange air about him quiet and sometimes even described as taciturn, then when confronted with the mysterious aliens or even the so-called 'Daemons' he would charge into the fray with what could only be described as an aura of fury about him.

As time went on the Dark Eldar found them poor sport, and left to find other prey. Despite all odds the Greenskins numbers were slowly being whittled down, Though Belgaria whom had opted to go into a state of isolation found itself destroyed by the rampaging Greenskins

What truly marked the beginning of the end was when the Coalition came to the Capital of the Fallen Kingdom of Drusalis it was there they were confronted by mad men and Daemons . But the most notable It's skin could only be described as bleeding red charcoal like burnt flesh. It's armor looked like a fire-blacked parody of ancient Terrran Knights, it wielded a blade engraved with bizarre and alien runes.

In that confrontation the mysterious warrior who accompanied the Coalition's most famed heroes changed, as if awakening something that was long locked away. Lightning was dancing all over his armor, and the sword he wielded was wreathed in ethereal silver flames. When he clashed with the massive Daemon he had banished to wherever it came from.

In less that five years after the Daemons had been banished the Coalition would rally all of the survivors and begin driving off the Rak'gol and Orks in earnest.

The Gurin Technocracy who had hidden away all this time attempted to use subversive methods to eliminate the Coalition, only for said attempts to backfire, at which point the Coalition convinced sympathetic parties in the Gurin Technocracy to help them besiege the underground cities.

* * *

 **The Reforging**

With the enemies of man wiped out the Ietanian's began rebuilding. The Coalition did not dissolve back into the various factions, but rather they ratified the formation of their nation as one entity. The Warrior of Thunder had professed that he was not entirely human, that he came from the stars, and he provided knowledge of lost Archaeotech.

Thanks to Varadel's Technological knowledge, the sense of militarism that existed thanks to the decade spent at the mercy of Xenos and the Thunder Warrior's aid before he disappeared, Ietania recovered at a rapid pace. In less than two decades they had not only recovered they had restored and built void ships.

During the unification, Psykers began emerging among Ietania's populace. Fearful of their powers and to the protest of many these Psykers were sequestered in isolated locations, while they never mistreated and in fact were taken care of by the new government there were many who still protested isolating people for something they could not control nor did they want, It was said that the Thunder Warrior had reemerged shortly after the decision had been made to request custody of the Psykers for reasons unknown.

* * *

 **Allies in the Stars**

Then they went to the stars, originally to find the homeworld of the Thunder Warrior, instead they found other planets, some in blissful ignorance others under the same dangers that they themselves faced. Unwilling to let them be left to such a fate the Coalition sent soldiers to aid these planets. After doing so the planet often elected to join hands with the Coalition, Some chose not to and the Coalition respected their decisions.

The Coalition was founded on a simple basis: Survival. With this in mind they had elected to make military service mandatory, they went through a decade of peace dealing with nothing more than the occasional raid. After ratifying agreements with other planets the Coalition was henceforth referred to as the Markayn Coalition, after the designation used in ancient starcharts for their sector in the galaxy.

After acquiring old star charts, the Coalition began exploring southwards, one of the first planets they came into contact with was Ornsworld home of the Ratlings, the first colony they established was on the planet designated Solomon, following that they found and established an additional colony on the planet designated Scintilla. It was then that the Ietanian members of the Coalition requested complete control of several planets more specifically three planets that were home to a strange gravitational phenomena. As Ietania had stated that they planned on devoting their resources and no one else, the rest of the Coalition representatives agreed, seeing no reason to deny such a request and with that agreement the Lathe Colonies were established, marking the frontier of Markayn Coalition's explored territory, and would stay that way for some time.

* * *

 **The Century of Blood**

"What a time to be alive..." - Major Johann Radec of the Coalition Armed Forces reflecting on how hostile Xenos seemed to have started crawling out of the woodworks

This particular time period was referred to by Coalition historians as the Century of Blood, a fitting name for the century of conflict faced by the Coalition. Each threat on it's own could arguably have been called "minor" unfortunately these Xeno entities started attacking the Coalition at about the same time. The Dark Eldar raids signified the need for rapid growth of the Coalition fleet, while never able to defeat the Dark Eldar, the Navy had grown experienced in driving off the raiders before they could raid Coalition territory.

They were forced to make questionable decisions in order to ensure their own survival, diverting all resources to Military industry, Full Conscription and Permanent services. The combined issues of the Fra'al inserted cults and the arrival of the Yu'vath and their strange technology resulted in the deployment of a group known only as the Null-Maidens. It was in the backdrop of this growing threat that the Thunder Warrior returned.

The originally isolated Psykers were deployed into battle in an attempt to combat the Yu'Vath. Unknown to many in the Coalition the Thunder Warrior had felt some modicum of guilt for staying silent during the governments decision to isolate the Psykers and had devoted his years of seclusion while the Coalition was aiding other human planets to teaching emerging Psykers how to better control their powers so they could hopefully return to society one day.

Despite reservations, the newly deployed Psykers as well as the Null maidens proved themselves to be a lynchpin to confronting the bizarre technologies of the Yu'vath and significant headway was made in pushing them back. Though it took many years they had eventually driven them off but many soldiers had lost their lives.

A Yu'vath incursion had assaulted the planet designated Vostroya, shattering infrastructure and killing off most of the Leadership and capturing the rest, it took a concerted effort of the inhabitants alongside aid from the Coalition's growing navy that would drive them off, in turn the Vostroyans formed their own government and pledged themselves to the Coalition, bring their industrial expertise into fold of the Coalition.

When they had originally captured Yu'vath Technology there was talk of trying to reverse-engineering their technology, the Thunder Warrior had firmly stated that he would not allow it, though some had challenged this statement the Thunder Warrior had somehow made them back down.

Though successful in driving off the Yu'vath much to their horror the Greenskins that had plagued several of the Core worlds had returned en masse. Knowing how difficult it was to drive off an Ork Waaagh!, the Coalition doubled down on conscription and until the war was over no one would leave the military service, as even the crippled veterans who originally being outfitted with bionics and discharged found themselves being thrown back into the frontlines.

* * *

 **The Intervening years**

 _"Jackals at the Gates..."_ \- The general opinion of political situation with the other human nations after driving off the Yu'vath and Greenskins

After the Long war the Coalition went into a state of partial de-militarization, Conscription laws were repealed as was permanent service though the amount of volunteers was no small number. Due to all of the time devoted to researching technologies for military use, the Coalition's Research and Development prioritized Environmental restoration as well as colonization.

In the aftermath of the the period known as the Century of blood, other human nations tried to assert claims on Coalition territory, often rebuffed it had usually ended up devolving into several low-intensity conflicts that ended in the Coalition's favor.

While they devoted most their resources to non-military development it did not mean Research and development of military technology had been abated. Now that they were no longer under threat the Coaltion's armed forces underwent reorganization and standardization of equipment. Standardized equipment was included but not limited to more durable Carapace armor and the standard issue Lancer was converted into las-weaponry from the original Autogun variant. New void classes of hull ships were being built, the hulls designated Battle-cruisers were being built as well as a project to develop Battleship-class hulls.

Many new colonies were established, despite the repealing of conscription laws the Armed forces had found themselves with many volunteers. More ships had been built to guard the worlds and new colonies of the Coalition

Despite this backdrop of relative peace the the Military commanders of the Coalition armed Forces still look westwards towards the Halo Stars, from where the Yu'vath came from. While many would have preferred peace, there was nevertheless talk of launching military expeditions to find and deal with the Yu'vath once and for all and growing popularity, these plans would be put on hold when a Golden Starship emerged into realspace near Scintilla...

* * *

 **A brief Excerpt on the Occulati**

None knew the origins of this organization, it was collection of veteran soldiers, Psykers and women simply known as null-maidens. The mundane soldiers were screened using unknown and said methods were never disclosed.

While the one who commanded them was unknown, The Occulati had several major responsibilities. These duties included the training of Psykers, the protection from outside threats with Psychic capabilities and perhaps the most important the hunting of Cults. While it had been some time the stories of how the Kingdom of Drusalis fell had yet to fade from the minds of others, worsening the issue was seized Yu'Vath and occasionally Fra'al Technology.

* * *

 **The (long) Author commentary**

If you want a sound reference for their language it's a cross between Finnish, German and Celtic, as the Coalition grows the sound reference transitions to something akin to Mando'a from _Star Wars_

Personnel/ Army Aesthetic would be a cross of the _Gears_ from _Gears of War_ and Helghast Soldiers from _Killzone_.

The Idea of the Coalition having an analogue to the Sisters of Silence was based off an old theory that the Sisters were a product of the Dark Age. if we go with that being true it wouldn't be a big stretch to say that some of them were in different parts of the galaxy when the Age of Strife happened.

Albrecht has essentially took part in establishing a smaller scale Imperium, with no Space marines to help them. Though it was more of him screaming from the sidelines and actually working.

In a way it's not that impressive, it took the Coalition 100+ years to get to that point in comparison to how big the Imperium got through the Great Crusade. Though in their defense they were fending all sorts of Canon Nastiness that can cause issues for 40k Imperium, had they faced much less resistance (which admittedly was never going to happen) they might have taken most of Obscurus by the time the Imperium reached them.

To put things in perspective, the canon crusade to take Calixus had to make generous use of Exterminatus weapons to kill the Yu'Vath, the Rak'gol are still a problem in that part of space, the Fra'al are dangerous enough that even the Craftworld Eldar are wary of them, and that's just the minor species that live nearby, that doesn't even take the Dark Eldar and Orks into account.

End result? Albrecht had to nudge the Coalition into doing some pretty questionable things to survive, they couldn't afford to be friendly to Xenos or try to turn their home into something like Ultramar, at that point they were just trying to survive. If Ultramar is supposed to be filled with paradise worlds than the Coalition is filled with mostly civilized worlds

Despite everything, it works. At which point the Coalition more or less stabilized allowing them shift gears from survival to development, they were also strong enough that diplomacy wasn't such outlandish idea, and that would be about thirty years before the Imperium arrives.

The Yu'vath was one of the first targets Albrecht has on his radar when he launches his expeditions, It is also a good way for me to justify his legion having a large stockpile of Exerminatus-grade weapons as the in Canon the Angevin Crusade had to use such weapons many times.

In case your curious about their navy by the time the Emperor meets them, they have analogues of:

\- Armageddon Class Battlecruiser (Flagship)

\- Dominion Class Battlecruiser (Carrier)

\- Lunar Class Cruisers (Line Ship)

\- Dictator Class Cruisers (Carrier)

\- Dominator Class Cruisers (Support)

\- Defiant Class Light cruisers (Small Carrier)

\- Dauntless Light Cruisers (Escort)

\- Sword Frigate (Escort/Screen)

\- Cobra Destroyers (Escort/Screen)

\- Havoc Destroyers (Wolf Pack/screen)

I say analogues because some of these ships actually don't exist by M30 (ex: Armageddon and Dominator Class) but fufill similar functions. They have a sizable number of cruisers, a lot of frigates and destroyers and maybe a dozen or less in terms of battlecruisers. Aesthetically speaking they actually look closer to that of the Adeptus Mechanicus ships in terms of appearance and color scheme (sans red) except thay have rams much like imperial navy ships.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Ever had a moment when you think you've properly edited but still can't help but think you missed something? That's me right now.**

 **Yup a Game of Thrones/ASoIaF reference, didn't realize I made it til about five minutes after, but I couldn't really think of another way to phrase that time period for the Coalition.**

 **I also altered the Yu'vath, they didn't actually grow into prominence until about M39, for the AU they've been around for a while.**

 **oh and the Emperor will hear of the title given to him (The Thunder Warrior) and privately find the irony glorious.**


	12. Snippet 7

**AN: Probably doesn't do much for Albrecht's characterization, but here's a snippet.**

* * *

Albrecht was confused. The last thing he remembered was the battle of Drusalis. He had confronted Daemons before but they much smaller 'Bloodletters' and 'Daemonettes' as others had called them, it was the first time he had fought a so-called "Greater Daemon". While he would not have admitted it openly, he was frightened by it.

It was dressed in armor that looked like a twisted Parody of the Ancient Terran Knights in his mother's stories, its skin was red as if it's body had been set aflame. It's roar, he could have sworn he heard the screams of thousands dying as if being burned alive, Women, Children, the elderly…

He remembered as the others were slaughtered by the thing, many men bisected by single swing of it's blade. Albrecht himself had been lucky and got hit by the flat of the blade, unfortunately that sent him flying and he smashed through a building… he distinctly remembered the explosion of pain he felt and how it got worse when the building promptly collapsed on him.

He never felt so grateful for the fact that he was not a normal human, he could already feel some of his injuries mending themselves.

He remembered finding an old Drusalian Warblade, and left with no choice attacked the Daemon again. Albrecht thought it a fruitless attack, one that would lead to his death, but he refused to just lay down and die.

Then something inexplicable happened. He felt a sudden surge in strength, he felt electricity coursing all over his body and his blade…

There was now lightning coursing over it, and it was also wreathed in silver flames.

 **' _Anathema'_** he could have sworn he heard it growl that word, a word made no sense to him either in meaning nor context.

Albrecht remembered charging the beast, but then everything went black.

* * *

At this point Albrecht was now certain that he was in the Immaterium or the Realm of Souls as mother once called it, but when he looked at his surroundings it was jumbled and confusing, the more he tried to make sense of it, the more confusing it became.

It was then that he noticed them. Before him stood four figures.

An armoured giant it wore a baroque helm decorated with the skulls of conqueror kings. Heavy, overlapping plates of armour fashioned from brass and blackened iron.

Another being was a vast mound of rotting flesh, with open sores and gaping wounds in which strange creatures cavort and frolic. Weeping pustules ooze filth and his bowels constantly issue putrescent waste. Albrecht was barely able to make out a face. Beneath his fingernails, maggots and other carrion feeders lay eggs around which develop cysts that periodically burst open and spew their rancid payloads.

He did not know of what to make of this one, it's form kept changing, it had many mouth and many eyes, but even that would change shifting constantly.

The last one, it was strange. Albrecht could not identify it's gender... if it even had one, Two pairs of slender horns rise from the entities, flowing golden hair. It wore luxuriantly lined, form-fitting armour and carried a jade sceptre. What was most disturbing to Albrecht was that it's form was slowly changing into that of someone he once knew, but he ignored it.

"What are you?" Albrecht asks, in all of his life he had yet to see such things

" **We are the Gods of the Immaterium, the Powers of Chaos, the Primordial Truth. You belong to us, as do all of your kind."**

Albrecht's mind was flooded with images, he saw a man commit the act of kinslaying. The look confusion, betrayal and despair on the young man's face as he bled out and died. He saw firsthand the birth of a Daemon, could it have been the first?

He heard the words 'Kill them all. Our God will know who is loyal' and watched as knights, the very people his father had told him were supposed to be the embodiment of chivalry massacre the innocent, the city ran red with blood. He watched as another Daemon was formed, this one terrifyingly familiar... and then it hit him, it was the same Daemon he had just barely fought off.

" **You think yourself powerful? Like He on Terra?"** Who was He on Terra? As if to answer more images flooded his mind, he saw Warrior clad in Golden armor, this warrior fought beings not to dissimilar to the ones he fought in Drusalis. It was then that he saw the warrior's face and Albrecht could have sworn he was looking at an older version of himself, so many similarities but at the same time he could make out slight differences. He watched as the warrior bound a mighty beast, no a dragon on a distant, red planet.

" **You are nothing, we are monument to your sins,"** His vision was flooded with images of the many wars fought in the name of god or other more selfish interests, the plagues that swept over and killed millions on what he presumed to be Terra, the way men and women used lies and deception to cause untold suffering.

" **-the Primordial Annihilators, Your soul belongs to us. Obey us, Serve us, and we will be your salvati-"**

'Lies… Lies!' shouted Albrecht, the strange power he had awakened during his battle with the Daemon crackling all over frame as he stood. He refused to believe that these so-called gods could have any control over humanity.

If it was true, than Drusalis would not have been the only kingdom to fall to this 'Primordial Truth'

If they were truly salvation, then he did not want to know what was damnation.

"You are naught but a false creation to give answers to those too afraid to give it to themselves… You have nothing! You are nothing! You have no power over me!"

Albrecht froze as he screamed the last words, as if a great revelation began dawning upon him.

"You have no power over me," he repeated, slowly, only now understanding the truth of that statement, 'I am Human, I am the master of my fate, Not destiny, not some so-called god, and most certainly not any of you. You have no power over anyone that they did not give to you!"

He had witnessed cultists summon Daemons, it was only through them that could appear and wreak havoc.

The Giant snarled like a hound would, the mound of flesh had no reaction to his declaration, the being with the constantly changing formed tilted it's head as far as Albrecht could tell, and the last one, who looked so hauntingly familiar but it was not her looked shot him a betrayed look, even when he knew that she was more of an it.

"I. Give. You. Nothing! Begone, and darken my mind no more!'

As if in response to his declaration, a silvery light shimmered over him as he felt a warm sensation overtake him.

It was then that their reactions took a different turn.

 **'This is not over!'** threatened the four entities **. 'There will be a reckoning for this! You cannot defy us, for we are the Primordial Truth, all beings serve us, one way or another!'**

"You are nothing," replied Albrecht his tone conveying the finality of his words the matter settled as far he was concerned, he turned away from the ones who claimed to be the embodiment of the truths of reality. "Nothing but the lies we tell ourselves, I will never call upon you and I will never serve you. Do you hear me, Daemons? Not now, not ever!" he had almost roared the last words.

The image of the Young Primarch vanished as his soul returned to the Materium, leaving the so-called gods alone as they felt the threads of fate being cut apart ever so slowly...

* * *

 **Extra Scene**

She was searching for her son.

When she first found him all those years ago, he was being attacked by a Daemon. When she first came across it, It shocked her to see one of those things around, but thankfully it was distracted so dispatching it was fairly easy. She walked over to the object that seemed to have caught the Daemon's attention.

There was not mistaking it, it was a Gestation pod, the ones used for artificial births. It was being protected by a barrier, she had thought it part of the capsule itself but she found no sigils or runes when she inspected it.

She could the sense the Psychic Aura fading into nothing, which alarmed her as the only reason for that was because the Psyker in question was dying.

From the moment she laid eyes on him Alivia knew that Albrecht was _his_ son. But in that moment she did not care, the moment she laid eyes on infant she found her emphatic abilities read the infant. The newborn opened his eyes and stared, before squealing happily, convinced that the person holding him was his mother. She would never disabuse of the notion that she was his mother, even after she had told him the truth.

Alivia was broken from her thoughts when she heard him, he was screaming.

Alivia heard the scream simmer down as she entered the room.

She knew Albrecht was _his_ son, but it was never more apparent when she laid eyes on him now. He was resting, his wounds had clearly mended for the most part, there were faded scars across his body including one on his temple.

She knew that _he_ made him for war, Minerva had all but confirmed it when she examined him, but a lot of his capabilities were rendered dormant.

A part of her could understand why he did it, but another part of her couldn't help but be upset at the idea of making a child and then turning them into a weapon…

Albrecht had changed, the aura around him reminded her of _him,_ except it was far weaker in comparison, like that of a newborn compared to an adult _._ Despite the change she knew it was her son laying on the bed and not some Daemon possessing him. She had seen far too many Daemonhosts, whatever change that occurred it was tied to _him._

The doctor who was checking did not seem to notice, but the other healer Selene, was giving slight glances at his shadow.

She was a healer from Venwick, the local village where she and Ollanius had raised Albrecht. In fact it was Albrecht himself who brought her to the village. Alivia knew when she first laid eyes on her that she was a Psyker, which meant it was no surprise when her son asked her to teach her to control said abilities.

She had presumed that her son had developed a crush on her, but he never acted upon those feelings and she started a relationship with someone else.

He then went off to work with the Artificial intelligence Minerva, another of _his_ creations. Last she heard of her son he had played a part in forming the Coalition as it was called, before taking up the guise of a soldier.

He's picked up Ollanius' habits.

Now here she found him, recovering from one of the bloodiest battles in this 'Unification War' as others had begun calling it.

It threw her off, what was Selene looking at? She seemed unsettled in a way that made no sense. It was then that she noticed the bizarre change in his shadow, on first glance it looked normal, except on closer inspection it now sported wings, wings that he seemed to lack physically...

* * *

 **Author Commentary**

Admittedly as I wrote this snippet it felt extremely familiar, but I can't place my finger on it so you might see something similar in other works as i might have seen it and ended up mimicking it.

So i'm not sure If I wrote it well but the TL:DR for the snippet is: Albrecht confronts a Greater Daemon, essentially wakes up his Psyker Abilities/ Primarch abilities and defeats it. While recovering he unconsciously sent himself into the Immaterium and ends up encountering the ruinous powers. He essentially rejects them then and there, and gets sent back into the materium.

So yeah, the idea is that with him rejecting Chaos, the OC Primarch is immune to Chaos-related mental attacks and Daemonic Possession. Psychic attacks (I.e Warpfire) can still hurt him though. One of the things that I had in mind when I was writing the OC Primarch was somewhat inspired by Titus Crow from Brian Lumley's novels.

The Extra scene was personally a bit iffy for me to write especially since Alivia wouldn't actually know the Emperor as the Emperor of Mankind(if that makes sense), which is to say it's somewhat open to a Retcon/Alterations.


	13. Notable Coalition-born Astartes

**AN: So a mini retcon, The Eleventh Legion were not named Storm Wardens at the beginning, they were christened the Storm Walkers after the Battle of Rust, Albrecht renamed them Storm Wardens after he spent time on Terra.**

 **Notable Coalition-born Legion Personnel**

* * *

In contrast to his brothers the Eleventh Primarch had a much larger pool of recruits to draw upon. Horus drew from Terra and Cthonia, Leman Russ had Fenris and Ferrus Manus had Medusa. Albrecht himself had dozens of planets from which to draw recruits from which is why his Legion ended up being the fastest to grow despite the more more stringent requirements. But what confused many was the age of the first batch of Astartes candidates, whom were compatible but of advanced age. What made some of these candidate notable was that these men were amongst the Eleventh Primarch's Closest Comrades before he was found by the Imperium. Despite their advanced age and use of Anti-Agathic treatments many of the Primarch's closest human comrades and subordinates were compatible with Astartes Augmentation of the Eleventh Legion and in theory could be implanted.

Though the process was more complex thanks to their advanced age, these old soldiers were successfully underwent Gene-seed Implantation, a known quirk was that the candidate in question was seemingly revitalized in appearance, the only mark of their advanced age before implantation being the greyish-white hair they seemed to have in comparison to the variety of colors the younger candidates possessed.

Some would have believed The Primarch's decision to immediately make these men officers to be nepotism for his old comrades, but these men brought with them the experience that came with decades if not a century of waging war and would prove time and time again that the Primarch was right to give them such positions in the Legion.

* * *

 **Johann Radec**

 _Commander of the Third Grand Company_

An old soldier of the Drusalian Kingdom of Ietania, Johann Radec was a rightly feared commander. What many did not know was the Johann was alongside Siegfried Vorbeck among Albrecht Taranis' childhood friends. Radec left the village he grew up in due to the fact that his mother had been forced to return to the Kingdom of Drusalis. It was there that Johann would serve under the Drusalian house of Radec. Johann served until the Kingdom fell, thankfully for him he was able to evacuate his mother and close friends from the kingdom only for tragedy to strike. Strange Xenos had abducted refugees including his mother, not thinking rationally, Radec pursued them into a strange portal.

It was not known what transpired only that Radec had returned, he and the refugees and other humans had been rescued from Xenos by the individual who became known as the Thunder Warrior who in turn was revealed to be Albrecht Taranis. It was from there that Radec joined the Coalition's military and threw himself headlong into his new duties.

What made Ietanian's and by extension many others fear him was both the way he conducted warfare and how he fought: Swift, Merciless and Overwhelming were among the few words used to describe both his strategies and tactics and when he takes to field personally.

While no poor strategist there were many among the other Legions who could be considered his betters, but it was in tactics that lay his strength. During the course of the Century of Blood he often changed the tide of the battle simply by taking to the field himself. His capabilities were further refined when he started learning Old Albia's feared battle-craft from Amadeus DuCaine as well as other strategies during his time as an emissary to the other Space Marine Legions.

As time went on Radec and Taranis would shift the Eleventh Legion's doctrine to a more refined Combined-arms strategy. Johann Radec is an example of the Military Commanders of the Markayn Coalition during it's Century of Blood as well as Ietania's War of Unification.

* * *

 **Siegfried Vorbeck**

 _Master of the Ghosts, Commander of the Fourth Grand Company_

Like Johann Radec and the Primarch, Siegfried was born in the village of Venwick. Siegfried served under a number of banners, Like Radec he served under the Kingdom of Drusalis and was key figure in evacuating the populace from the capital as it descended into Anarchy. He would later serve under the banner of the Varadel Technocracy and fought against the marauding greenskins. When the Technocracy collapsed he joined the remnants in forming the Coalition and served as one of many officers. Now Siegfried fights under the banner of the Imperium more specifically Albrecht Taranis' Space Marine Legion.

Despite his advanced age, Siegfried was considered for Astartes augmentation due to his close friendship with the Eleventh Primarch. Like many of the first Ietanian candidates he had to undergo a modified Anti-agathic treatment before going through gene-seed Implantation.

As he was readjusting to his new physiology, Siegfried studied the combat doctrines utilized by the Legion. Dissatisfied by the relative rigidness, Siegfried brought his concern to both the Primarch and the Legion master, though DuCaine seemed hesitant Siegfried found a comrade in one Julius Churchill. Working with Julius Churchill and other like-minded Coalition and Terran officers, they began the restructuring of tried and test combat doctrines and also established the later dreaded Ghost formation of the Eleventh with the blessing of the Primarch.

* * *

 **Ronan Hotakainen**

 _Chief Librarian/Commander of the Tempest Blades_

For the people of the Coalition, Psykers were seen as victims of circumstance, their powers led them to becoming potential victims or warp entities and as a result were seen with pity rather than fear, however the fear felt for them was still great and as such they were sequestered on Ietania for a time. During their isolation, several individuals approached them and started training them to control their abilities, one of these individuals would eventually have been revealed to be the Eleventh Primarch.

Ronan Hotakainen was one of the first Sanctioned Psykers of the Markayn Coalition who were deployed to great effect against the Yu'Vath. Personally trained by the Primarch himself, Ronan was known for creating barriers that could shield his comrades and was more than capable fighting without the use of his powers.

After joining the Eleventh Legion as an Space Marine the first of the Legion's Arcani, Ronan would help his Primarch and former teacher standardize training methods for his Psychic-capable Space Marines. He would later go on to become the first of the Tempest Blades, A specialist unit formation of Psychic Astartes outside of the regular command structure who utilized their psychic abilities to enhance to capability in close quarters combat, with Ronan becoming their de-facto commander.

* * *

 **Renatus**

 _Ghost Veteran, (Officially a Myrmidon)_

His origins were shrouded in mystery, all that was known is that Renatus has been a comrade of the Primarch since the Century of Blood. He was among the first Space Marines to join the Ghost Formations, a specialist unit formation of the Eleventh Legion that was built by several peers from the Coalition.

During the Crusade, Renatus undertook missions from his Primarch that were of a more clandestine variety only the Battle-Captains of the Grand Companies and the Legion Master were made aware of his missions. While no one could recognize his appearance (he had kept his helmet on), his was name was not unknown. Renatus earned a reputation as his Primarch's metaphorical "Dagger in the Dark"

* * *

 **A Brief Excerpt on Legion Organization**

Despite the reunion with their Primarch, at the onset of the Great Crusade the Eleventh Legion saw very little in terms of changes. In comparison to the Tenth Primarch Ferrus Manus whom made sweeping changes in terms of Reorganization or Horus Lupercal who had been able to shape his Legion to his desires from the very beginning, Albrecht Taranis did very little to change the Legion, This was for several reasons. For one, in comparison to the Luna Wolves, Iron Hands and Vlka Fenryka, the Storm Walker Legion was relatively small, this was due to the fact that they were typically thrown into the more hazardous warzones which meant casualties were unavoidable, the only legion who suffered as much as they did in this regard were their cousins in the Fourteenth Legion. Second, he was personally fascinated with their already established culture as he could find several correlations to that of his peoples, and saw no reason to force them to get rid of it.

As such it there was no reorganization of the Legion until after they had gained a large number of Astartes Recruits via the newly established Imperium Obscurus. In contrast to his brothers Albrecht had multiple worlds* to recruit from rather than the usually singular planets that his brothers had. Despite the more stringent screening process needed to find candidates the massive recruiting pool the Eleventh acquired resulted in the Eleventh growing at a rapid pace going from approximately twenty thousand Astartes to fifty-thousand in the span of a few years. What made it more impressive was that thanks to the unique traits of the Primarch's geneseed a number of candidates were already well-versed in terms of combat skills, training was more having them adjust to their new physiology.

It was with the large number of new Astartes that the Eleventh Legion was Reorganized. Albrecht Taranis saw no reason to discard the Chapter System and kept it, however he organized the Chapters into a command structure that would later be known as the Grand Companies. A Grand Company was comprised of Ten Chapters for a total of approximately Ten Thousand Astartes per Grand Company. Each Company was led by a Officer referred to as a Commander.

The Purpose of the Reorganization was to divide the Eleventh into smaller but cohesive fighting forces that could conduct battle without the presence of their Primarch. A Grand Company was in many ways a self contained army. A number of Imperial Army units were attached to each grand company, who in turn brought planets into submission all on their own over the course of the Great Crusade. Said system was unique to the Eleventh Legion as Albrecht's brothers saw no reason to change how they themselves had organized their legions.

At the onset of the Eleventh Legion's participation in the Great Crusade under their Primarch there were five Grand Companies, their numbers would swell even further to a total of Ten Grand Companies. This number would be reduced to Eight during engagements with an unknown xeno species, after the loss of so many Space Marines, Albrecht Taranis was summoned to Terra by the Emperor, it was not known what words were exchanged only that his summons was not a reprimand. The Eleventh Legion's ranks would rebuild to the point that they would have a staggering fourteen Grand Companies, It was at this point that the Rangdan Crisis would begin with the Eleventh Legion being among the first fighting on the frontlines...

* * *

 **AN: This is less of me writing out characters and more of me giving a roster of names that will come up later in the numerous snippets. I may flesh them out more in the future**

 **Vorbeck and Radec are among the Primarch's Childhood friends who are seasoned veterans of the Coalition Military, their motive for joining the Eleventh was because they didn't want to leave their old friend alone, and would have accompanied him even if they couldn't become Space Marines.**

 **Johann Radec takes (some) inspiration from Colonel Mael Radec from Killzone**

 **Siegfried is somewhat inspired by a real life soldier named Lauri Torni, a Finnish Soldier who fought in several conflicts, the Winter and Continuation War, the Second World War as a member of the Waffen SS and the American Special forces in the Vietnam war.**

 **Renatus was somewhat inspired by characters from Rainbow Six Vegas and Ghost Recon**

 *** The Coalition had a little under 50 worlds under their command (this is not counting the large number of colonies) before they became a vassal state, By the end of the Great Crusade they've taken over the Canon Calixus, Finial, Scarus and Gothic Sectors, though they will in the midst of colonization, which would result in Imperium Obscurus having hundreds of worlds.**

 **4/17/2019 Edit: added a bit more to Ronan as I realized that I published the wrong document.**


	14. Legion Wargear

**AN: Part 1 of the Wargear overview, part 2 comes much later.**

 **When you read through this your probably wondering how Albrecht could design equipment, my answer may come across as a bit of cop-out explanation but here it is anyways.**

 **To put things in perspective, compared to his brothers Albrecht has had an additional 150 odd years to learn things (read: Human History, Science, Engineering,) from the Walking encyclopedia that is a fully functioning** **(and friendly)** **A.I from the Dark Age, considering how fast the others grew to become experts in various fields, it is a big advantage. That is before you take into account that he is a Primarch, who tend have a lot extra stuff including enhanced learning capabilities and whatever else the Emperor saw fit to give them.**

* * *

 **Notable Wargear of the Eleventh (Before Reunion with Primarch)**

The Space Marines of the Eleventh lacked the artisan-like skills possessed by the Tenth Legion or the Eighteenth but were proficient enough to take care of whatever equipment they were issued.

A practice among their veterans involves modifying their Power Armor with additional pieces of technology or ablative armor-plating, one of the more common practices involved modifying the neural connector gear of the armor in order to allow the helmet to move with the wearers head, this was often followed by separating the helmet from it's fixed position on the chest piece*. Another practice involved shaping a piece of ceramite into a neck guard and welding it onto the Armor. This practice came about after their experiences in the Tempest Galleries, where one of the more common causes of death was a deflected blade striking into the neck of an unfortunate Astartes, this also had the unexpected benefit of protected the more vulnerable neck joint from deflected bullets. These modifications did increase the weight of the armor, but the Legionaries of the Eleventh modified their armor regardless, knowing that the better protection was well worth the added weight.

Despite the fact that they were among the 'younger' Legions, the Eleventh gathered a plethora of technological knowledge, from the blade-forging techniques the Xeric tribes, the technological and mechanical expertise of the Ironside Clans, to knowledge acquired from recruits exiled from the Lastrum and Terrawitt Clans. Alongside the occasional recruits acquired during the Great Crusade, This gathered knowledge allowed them to gradually improve their own equipment in a myriad of subtle ways as the Crusade wore on.

* * *

 **Ironside-Pattern Autocannon** ,

Originally meant to be nothing more than a Stop-Gap measure, this heavily modified Autocannon became the mainstay weapon amongst the Legion's Heavy Gunners. It find its origins in the Unification wars, where as one of the younger Legions the Eleventh found itself equipped sparingly in terms of support weapons. Members of the Eleventh took up the autocannon as a heavy support weapons.

The main appeal of the Autocannon was that it was much easier to manufacture and use without extensive maintenance. As they went through several campaigns their Autocannons were extensively modified by their users, first it was modifying firing mechanism to increase the firing rate, which was followed by customizing ammo loads to increase stopping power, and finally followed by altering the rifling of the barrels to extend the range of their Autocannons.

Eventually the Techmarines looked at the modifications made to their weapons and created a standardized variation that became known as the Ironside-Pattern Autocannon, named in honor of their Terran ancestry. Though the Heavy-Bolter has risen in popularity as heavy support weapon, many of the Eleventh Legion's Veteran Heavy Gunners opt to use the Autocannon, unleashing hard-hitting and accurate death on the enemies of the Imperium.

 **Arc Weaponry**

The Eleventh Legion participated in the Assault on the Tempest Galleries in Caucasus Wastes, one of the weapons they utilized were the Arc Rifle and Arc Blaster. Hastily built weapons made to combat the endless tide of Combat Automata thrown at them and it worked to deadly effect. In the aftermath of the Battle, the Emperor allowed them to keep their improvised weapons and other information such as knowledge on metallurgy and robotics. The mainstay weapons of the Rank and File Legionaries were occasionally substituted by The Arc rifle and the Arc Blaster occasionally found itself substituted the main weapons of the Eleventh's Heavy Gunner Squadrons.

Originally powered by capacitors salvaged from fallen automata in the Tempest Galleries, Arc Weaponry shoot out bolts of blue-white bolts electricity that can easily overload the control systems of combat automata thrown at them or outright kill a full grown man and its larger cousin has been known to cause significant breakdown when used on vehicles. Both were used to incredible effect against the Radical elements of the Mechanicum attempting to assassinate the Emperor whom deployed Advanced combat Servitors.

By the time of they had reunited with their Primarch, the Arc Rifle had been refined to the point that each chapter of the Eleventh Legion possessed a sizable number of these weapons in their armories and were constantly utilized by the veterans of the Tempest Galleries assault.

 **Albian Broadswords/Fractal Harrow Power Sword**

Vicious cutting blades used by both Assault and Despoiler Squadrons. Albian Broadswords were sidearms carried by the Ironside Soldiers of Albia. Majority of the Eleventh Legion's recruits are drawn from Old Albia brought these blades with them and had them reforged into Power swords fit for a Space Marine. While Eleventh Legion has a focus on the use ranged weaponry and most found their combat knives to be suffecient for close quarters, the refined power swords still see use in the smaller formations of Despoiler and Assault Squadrons who often wielded said swords in favor of standard issue chainswords.

 **Volkite Weaponry**

As Primarchs were found, the ranks of the Space Marine Legions swelled to the point that the originally issued Volkite Chargers and Callivers were considered impractical to be used as the mainstay weapon by the Space Marines. Nevertheless, though phased out in favor of the Phobos-Pattern Bolter, the Tech Marines of the Eleventh Legion keep their Volkite weaponry in good repair, and have at times fiddled with the weapons themselves. These attempts at tinkering with their weapons ending up bearing fruit when the modifications made to the Volkites ended up extending it's range though it still lacked in comparison to that of a Bolter.

The Eleventh Legion possess enough volkite weaponry to fully equip large numbers of Tactical squadrons with them.

It wouldn't be until after the Eleventh Primarch had been found that Volkite weaponry would be a more common sight, as it was rumored that the Primarch had both upgraded them and developed a new power cell for Volkite weaponry that were similar to the ones found in the common lasgun used by soldiers in the Imperial Army.

* * *

 **A brief extract on the Lathe Worlds**

The Lathe Worlds were claimed by the Ietanians about a decade before the Century of Blood. What many did not know was that the claim was made at the request of the Eleventh Primarch who wished to study the gravitational phenomena present. Lathe Primus acts as the residence of the scientists and labourers. Lathe Secundus was the largest of ther three worlds, it possessed a massive array of factories and refineries, it is the closest approximation to a Mechanicum Forge world. Lathe Tertius had two purposes, as a barren planet it served as a testing ground for experimental weaponry. Its other purpose was resource extraction. Despite being barren Lathe Tertius had immense mineral wealth and later scans of the planet revealed untapped veins of Adamantium.

The Lathe Worlds had for a time served as a major industrial centre for the Coalition, as the Crusade went on the Planets under Imperium Obscurus had developed enough of their own industry to be self-sustaining. As such the Lathe World's industrial capacity was devoted to producing military equipment for the Armed Forces of Imperium Obscurus as well as the Eleventh Legion.

* * *

 ** _Notable Legion Wargear (Post Reunion)_**

 **Lathe-Pattern Jump Pack**

A more advanced pattern of Jump Pack that required less thrust to produce the same amount of lift as a standard Serpha-pattern Jump Pack. This particular jump packwas utilzed by the Assault Squadrons of the Eleventh Legion, a schematic was delivered to the Ninth Legion as a gift. Albrecht Taranis designed this variant after observing the gravitational phenomena present on the Lathe Worlds.

 **Combi-Volkite**

One of the more common weapons during the early years of the Great Crusade was Volkite weaponry, Albrecht Taranis saw no reason to get rid of it and with help of his techmarines, he was inspired by the Combi-weapons being utilized by other legions decided to do something similar with their Volkite weapons. The Combi-Volkite is the mainstay weapon of the Eleventh Legion Veterans, mounting a compact and redesigned variant of a Volkite charger under the barrel of the Boltgun. This particular weapon was favored by a number of veterans for the metaphorical 'one-two punch' of a Volkite beam followed up by a bolt-shell on the weakened armor, in some cases Space Marines would conserve boltshells by utilizing the Volkite exclusively.

 **Heavily modified/Sentinel Pattern Power Armor**

The Eleventh Primarch approved of the measures taken by his Legion, he was however dissatisfied with the Mark II's difficulties in both sustained combat and void operations. Working with the Techmarines of his Legion and a few members of the Mechanicum, he designed upgrades to the exo-skeleton and artificial muscle fibers while integrating new systems to allow for extended void operations as well as combat in hazardous environments. The enhancements to the exo-skeleton and muscle fibers allowed for more fluidity in terms of movement.

Said upgrades would be streamlined and retrofitted into all Power Armor's issued to the Eleventh. Many of these modifications would find their way into the design of the Mark IV Maximus Power Armor and the Primarch with the help of his Techmarines would create their own Pattern of power armor designated as the Sentinel Pattern.

 **Sentinel Pattern Terminator Armor**

Originally being nothing more than modifications made to the Cataphractii-Pattern Terminator Armor. The Sentinel Pattern originally came about when Albrecht Taranis was comparing the designs of Terminator Armor to the Exo-suits he once designed that were utilized by the Elite of the Coalition's Armed Forces. He noticed that while it lacked significantly in terms of protection and had several almost debilitating drawbacks in comparison, the Exo-suits were far more advanced in terms of raw firepower and maneuverability.

Taking the lessons he learned from designing the exo-suits, he created a series of modifications to the Cataphractii's Exo Skeletal frame and redesigned the power grid in order to integrate Exo-suit styled weapon systems to be shoulder-mounted on the armors. These modifications would give the Terminator's in question significant ranged firepower.

Albrecht Taranis would not finalize a proper design or pattern until after the Rangdan Crisis. The Sentinel Pattern Terminator Armor had all the capabilities of the modified Cataphractii and then some, the new pattern proved itself to be much faster while maintaining the same level of protection. For the Terminators in his Honor guard, Albrecht further added wrist mounted Weaponry which often took the form of flamers akin to the ones used by the Fourteenth Legion better known as the Death Guard. The Sentinel Pattern would not see use outside of the Eleventh as many considered it to be too maintenance-intensive, which was no bother for members of the Eleventh and several of their cousin legions such as the Eighteenth who in turn were gifted the design. Despite being dismissed by the other legions, many of it's designs concepts would be utilized to create both the Tartaros-Pattern Terminator Armor and the Indominous.

 **Shredstorm Cannon/Shredder Gun**

A wrist mounted weapon. Taking inspiration from the Shrapnel and Tempest Bolter Munitions that were issued to his Legion, Albrect Taranis designed this weapon with the express purpose of providing a tool that can better dispatch the swarms of the Xeno species designated SH-01** confronted on the various Space Hulks his Legion have cleared.

The Shredstorm cannon fired a large slug that would detonate much like a Shrapnel or Tempest round, which in turn launched shrapnel at a high velocity in a large cone. It has repeatedly been used to halt Ork charges and destroy chargin xenos in the cramped corridors of a Space hulk. The original was difficult to mass-produce as a result, it was relegated for use by the Eleventh Legion's Honor Guard and Veteran Terminators. Another variation known as the Shredder gun would be deployed, though it lacked the same level of stopping power as the Shredstorm, it was designed for the express purpose of being mass-produced and in that regard it was successful.

One of it's drawbacks was that a finite amount of rounds that could be loaded at any given time, as trying to reload in the midst of battle often left the Terminator in question vulnerable. Because of this Terminators tend to use it sparingly. Terminator's often used them when Orks or Xenos are charging at them, waiting for the right moment to catch as many of them in the blast radius as possible.

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 _Notable Accessories_

 **Special Bolter Rounds (Proto-Flux Core/Banestrike Rounds, Proto Seeker Rounds)**

When the Boltgun became the mainstay of the Space Marine Legions, a Project was formed to see if improvements could be made to their weapons among the more tech-savvy members of the Eleventh. The head of this Project was Castiel Kyran, a Techmarine whose origins lay as an exile from the Lastrum Core Clan. In an attempt to quietly recreate the heliothermic rounds his clan was famous for producing, Castiel ended up creating a more potent bolter-round known as the Banestrike rounds which were much more potent for Armor-penetration, yet he was incapable of recreating the Heliothermic rounds. Another of his creations were referred to as Seeker Rounds which could detect an infrared heat signature and alter the trajectory of the Bolter round directly towards a target.

Though effective, such Bolter-rounds cannot be mass-produced so easily and as such these rounds are reserved for the use of the Eleventh Legion's more profiecient marksmen and veterans. The last accomplishments of note was Kyran developing a method to better produce Scorpius rounds and reverse-engineering Tempest rounds, allowing for more widespread usage of both amongst the Legionaries.

 **Rad/Phosphex Hardened Bodygloves**

Radiation and Phosphex weaponry are destructive weapons, even more so by the standards of the Imperium. As a sort-of holdover from the Unification Wars, Astartes Legions had Destroyer Squadrons, these squadrons would deploy the aforementioned weaponry to deadly effect on the battlefield. Many in the Imperium viewed the use of such weapons as dishonorable, however the Destroyer squadrons still persisted, and while they did not use it as wantonly as the Legion known as the Death Guard would in the future, the Eleventh did not possess the same hangups as their cousins. It was only when the harmful effects of the weaponry on wielders was exposed that Legion Master DuCaine immediately banned usage among their own ranks until they were forced to deploy it against the Crimson Walkers Rebellion.

After the rebellion, the Eleventh Legion's tech-marines endeavored to find a way to better protect their destroyer squadrons from the harmful effects of their own weapons. The end result was semi-successful, Destroyers of the Eleventh were better protected compared to their cousins as their modified body gloves acted as an improved contained environment suit, however it wasn't able to fully protect them, it simply lessened the effect. A Destroyer would suffer the same effects, it would just take three times as long to do so. As such the Eleventh deployed Destroyer weaponry sparingly which in turn lessened the harmful effects on the wielders. No proper solution would be made until the Eleventh were reunited with their Primarch.

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 **Notable facts about the Eleventh Legion's Gene-seed**

 **Mutated Ossmodula and Biscopia,**

Observations of XI Legion Astartes have revealed an undocumented mutation in both the Ossmodula and Biscopia. Bone fusing process does not occur in implanted candidate, but bones become both denser and stronger. The Stress of combat seems to stimulate additional growth resulting in the Astartes slowly attaining more strength and growing to heights akin to that of the Emperor's fallen Thunder Warriors.

 **Mutated Catalepsian Node,**

Astartes of the Eleventh have been noted to need more sleep than the average Astartes a minimum of six compared to the normal four. A noted benefit they seemed to have attain at the cost of their handicap seems to be enhanced kinesthetic learning capabilities.

 **Stimulated Larraman's organ,**

Unlike other mutation's this one has only been recorded in Space Marines who have participated in several battles and sustained near-lethal injuries. When the Astartes is on the verge of death the Larraman's Organ goes to overdrive, all injuries are healed at a rapid pace while a surge of adrenaline enters the system of the Space Marine in question. This ability has been noted to have varying degrees of potency, one such example is the Legion Master being unable to heal his lost eye, it is suspected that the stress of battle triggers this phenomena and in the case of the Legion Master occurred after the loss of said eye, as in battles long after Legion Master DuCaine has been recorded as recovering from far more severe injuries.

 **Degraded Omaphagea,** The most apparent or visible flaw in the Eleventh Legion Gene-seed. Ninety out of a hundred Astartes from the Eleventh Legion lack the benefits of the Omaphagea and the few that can still use it tend to find it distasteful.

 **Mutated Betcher's Gland,** A mutation in the Betcher's gland has resulted the produced acid becoming inorganic, rendering it ineffective against organic materials while increasing it's potency on inorganic materials.

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 **A Brief Excerpt on the Combat Disposition of the Eleventh at the onset of the Great Crusade**

 _"We offered mercy and clemency once, that was our mistake. Unless if the next words I hear are that of your unconditional surrender and the handing over of the guilty parties,_ _there is nothing to discuss." -_ Captain Shadrak Smythe of the Eleventh Legion to leaders of an Anti-Imperial Rebellion.

 _"The setting of the sun heralded their assault..." -_ Survivor of an Anti-Imperial Rebellion.

Unlike their Peers in the Sixteenth, the Eleventh spent the first three decades of the Great Crusade without their Primarch, yet Legion Master DuCaine achieved impressive victories and it's rank and file had also achieved incredible feats in the name of the Emperor. The demeanor of the Legionnaires had often been described as a strange dichotomy. Among their cousins in the other Legions, Members of the Eleventh have been described as amiable and friendly only to shift into a different demeanor the moment they deploy onto the battlefield, operating with both surgical precision and what could only be described as almost 'cold focus', this shift had often left their cousins unsettled especially when they returned to being amiable after the battle had ended.

During the Crusade and after Vhnori resurgence there were several rebellions against Imperial Rule, when the Eleventh were sent to suppress the rebellion it was often ended peacefully much to the surprise of the First Lord and Imperial Nobles, the Eleventh often dealt with rebellions on a case by case basis, those with legitimate grievances against the Imperium often faced minor punishments that some in the nobility would argue were merely a slap on the wrist for the rebels, while those that were truly rebelling against Imperial rule and in some cases for petty reasons were often intimidated into submission by the row upon row of Legionaries and Armored vehicles sitting just out of range, yet still in sight.

However a handful of said intimidated worlds fell back into rebellion or anarchy months after the Eleventh had left. The reaction of the Eleventh was described merciless and destructive as when they brought the worlds back into compliance there was rarely if ever negotiation, the Eleventh demanded unconditional surrender. If the rebels did not the Eleventh would attack immediately, striking the rebels without mercy and ignoring and pleas of surrender. While these instances were both few and far in between, their brutal suppression's of rebellious worlds and tales of why they acted as they did were notable enough to earn them a new moniker, "The Reckoning".

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 **AN:**

 ***I looked this up, Mark II Crusade Armor had the helmet in a fixed position, in this case they modified their own armors so that it can sway along with their head.**

 ****They're Genestealers in case you were wondering. The Eleventh Legion is often deployed into Hazardous environments until the Death Guard become a thing 50 years later, and are also in charge of Space Hulk Clearance operations, a duty they ended up keeping as they were better equipped/ experienced in such matters. Also if you know where the name of this weapon came from, all I can say is that you have good taste in video games.**

 **This is more of an entry showcasing what they have that's somewhat different from the rest of the Legions, they do in fact have all the generic wargear. Examples of unique wargear that has not been mentioned but they do have include: Stasis Shells, Molecular Acid Shells (Both from Thunder Warrior Arsenal) Blessed Autosimulcra, Infravisors,etc...**

 **Some stuff has been omitted on purpose as it would spoil some of the upcoming snippets.**

 **Last note, in terms of Armor appearance the Eleventh tend to have what amounts to more Mark 3 Iron suits, but by the end of the Great Crusade their armor looks closer to that of the one made by a fansite called _Between the Bolter and Me_ more specifically the True Scale Marine. Or in other words a combination of Mark 3 and Mark 4-like Aesthetic. For the Eleventh this translates to a smaller/slimmer profile in comparison to the other Space Marines.**


	15. Legion Infantry Overview

**AN:**

 **Like the Wargear Entry this is basically what they have that's somewhat different from the rest of the Legions, slightly anachronistic as it does mention the stuff they have by the time the Heresy unfolds and some unique formations have been purposely omitted much like their wargear. This is mostly infantry formations.**

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 **A brief Excerpt on Legion Training**

Before they were reunited with their Primarch, the Eleventh's training regimen emphasized teamwork over individual glory, and ensured that their rank and file were proficient in the use of their main armaments: boltguns, bolt pistol and combat knife. As time went on, this training extended to their growing arsenal of Volkite, Arc Weaponry and other weapons supplied to the Eleventh Legion. As a result of this training, many members of the Eleventh tend to show surgical accuracy when it comes to the use of all ranged weapons utilized by the Space Marine Legions.

When their Primarch had reunited with them, he had agreed with their methods and had his Legion's commanding officers gather and discuss possible methods of refining said training. From then on their training regimen was altered to emphasize tactical flexibility, All Legionnaires regardless of their unit were trained in the use of any infantry weapon in the Legion's Armory. After their training, recruits were organized into Legion's tactical squad formations which were often commanded by Veterans to help Recruits develop a flexible mindset in combat. All members of the Eleventh serve in the Tactical Squads before transitioning into more specialized units.

Perhaps the strangest irony for a legion that prized teamwork over individual skill was the capability of the Legion's Space marines. A combination of training, experience and their enhanced healing capabilities resulted in the Space Marines of the Eleventh being on an individual basis better fighters compared to the rest of their cousins.

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 **Notable Infantry Units of the Eleventh (Pre-Reunion):**

 **Heavy Gunners** (Heavy Tactical Support Squadrons/Devastator Refinement, synonymous with the 30k Iron Havocs)

There were times were the weaponry of the Tactical support squadron was considered ineffective, as such Space Marines began using bigger weapons such as the Heavy-Bolter. The Eleventh, lacking the same supplies that several legions were granted made do with the Autocannon. Much like the weapon they built the Marines who utilized them were organized into squadrons that would gradually improve their proficiency with said weapon and eventually master the usage of other heavy weapons..

For their deployment of heavy weapons, these squadrons eventually became known as Heavy Gunners. They were often attached to elements of any offensive action where their surgical and near pinpoint accuracy allowed them to scour clean fortifications and strongpoints of enemy infantry. While the Autocannon was their preferred weapon, the heavy gunners were capable of using Heavy-bolters, Plasma Cannons and the Legion's signature Arc Blasters to deadly effect, bringing accurate, precise and rapid-fire death upon any who opposed them.

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 **Ironbreakers** (Breacher Squadrons analogue/refinement)

During sieges, the Legion officers noted that they take the most casualties in both boarding actions and breaking through enemy fortifications. The Techmarines of the Eleventh cobbled together shields of layered Plasteel with a small energy field emitter. Their most notable deployment being an assault on a series of fortifications referred to as the Iron Citadel held by remnants of Narthan Dume's regime. The Eleventh Legion made use of these improvised shields to incredible effect wiping out the remnants of the Pan-pacific Empire. The added protection had ensured that most the assaulting Legionaries came out of that battle unscathed. For the feat of shattering the feared citadel, the unit formation became known as the Ironbreakers. Though the advent of the Tactical Dreadnaught Armor would render these units obsolete as the Crusade progressed, the Ironbreakers served diligently .

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 **Notable Units (post-reunion with Primarch)**

 **Myrmidons**

At the onset of his participation in the Great Crusade, Primarch Albrecht Taranis had dismissed the idea of taking bodyguards, this was for several reasons, first of all he felt relegating soldiers to act as bodyguards was unnecessary and inefficient, Secondly he was leery of creating a unit that was outside of the normal command structure specifically to protect himself and lastly, he was confidant that his martial capabilities and years of experience were more than enough to protect him. It took the insistence of his Legion Master, the urging of close confidants and the added insistence of his father to make him reconsider. Though dominated by mostly by the Astartes, there were a rare few of Taranis' honor guard were relatively normal humans, as these non-astartes members were typically drafted from Sanctioned Psykers, more specifically the ones who personally trained by the Primarch himself. Having been told of Ancient Terran Myths such as the Trojan war by his foster father, Albrecht gave the new Honor Guard the name Myrmidons after the men who had followed Achilles of Thessaly to Troy.

Their equipment often varied among individual members, some were equipped with Tactical Dreadnought Armor and others were equipped with Artificer Armor. While it was a stretch to say their equipment was one of a kind, it was often optimized for the use of that particular member of the honor guard.

While originally formed to be a small group acting as his bodyguards their numbers swelled from a hundred to thousands. While they still acted as his bodyguard they also acted as soldiers that were directly under his command, his metaphorical arms and legs in battle. The Myrmidons would carry out his commands and accompany him into battle. Like most of the Legion they bore little to no decoration or ornamentation however their armor was painted differently, The Myrmidons armor be it Tactical Dreadnought or standard power armor was painted in black with the details and arms painted silver.

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 **Tempest Blades (No tabletop/lore equivalent I can think of)**

After they had been reunited with their Primarch Albrecht, he noticed that there was a sizable number of his Space Marines who were suppressing their Psychic Capabilities. Majority of these Psychics had come from Ursh where their parents had lived under the thumb of Kalagann of Ursh who had ruled over them with his Psychic Prowess. This in turn resulted in fear of their own abilities and they began actively suppressing it.

Knowing that what they were doing was slowly killing them, Albrecht gathered them all and started training them, forming the Tempest Blades. While most of their brothers' favor ranged combat the Tempest Blades wield two-handed force swords into battle, using a psychic fulmination technique on their weapons to both extend the reach of their blade and inflict more damage. Another known capability was their ability to enhance their speed beyond normal Astartes capabilities, their movements obscured by a psychic-induced mist that made their movements harder to read.

To harness the power of the immaterium one must tread carefully, a lesson imparted to both the Tempest Blades and the Arcani. To directly use it as weapon compounds that risk, and potentially damn themselves to a fate that could be worse than death. The Tempest blades harness their powers to better serve the Imperium, knowing that they must be ever vigilant lest their own abilities lead to damnation.

 **Ghosts (Legionary Scout/Seeker Analogue, 40k analogue: Primaris Vanguard )**

It is difficult to describe the Ghost Formations of the Eleventh. At the onset of the crusade the Eleventh employed the use of reconnaissance squadrons but as time went on the newly organized Ghost squadrons began replacing the Legionary Scouts that were used.

Primarch Taranis introduced two pieces of technology to enhance their stealth capabilities: first was a tool known as the falsehood, it projected a psycho-luminal sphere around the Ghosts that distorted their appearance, allowing them to infiltrate the battlefield unseen and, even once detected, made it difficult for an enemy to target them, It was later modified and used during the Council of Nikaea to hide the identities of witnesses. Another was the Noise Canceller, a modification made to the Ghosts Power Armor that emit inverted sound waves to match the the original sound generated by movement, the destructive interference between the two waves causes them to cancel one another out, muting the noises made by the armor.

After realizing that the standard Power Armor was creating too large a profile for proper infiltration, Albrecht colluded with members of the Mechanicum (and some suspect that he collaborated with Primarch Alpharius*) to design a new variation of Power Armor, the end result was the Ghost-Pattern Power Armor, a suit of power armor that specifically minimized the normally large profile of the wearer as much as possible while maintaining nearly the same level of protection. This variant of power armor only saw use in the Eleventh as they were only ones at the time deploying that particular unit formation, the Nineteenth (and Later Twentieth) Legions showed an interest in said armors as did the Primarch of the Thirteenth when he saw how effective Ghosts were in his simulations.

This combination of their infiltration training and wargear made them difficult to discover when deployed on the field, making them perfect for laying ambushes and eliminating high-value targets before battle is fought. When deployed to lay ambushes Ghosts were often equipped with Specialized Bolter Ammunitions for either Armor Penetration or Long ranged kills. When Deployed to eliminate High-Value Targets two or more members of the squadron will be equipped with custom built sniper rifles or Stalker-Pattern Bolters. At times they were also deployed to hunt down or pursue high-value targets. When faced with traditional battle Ghosts can fight in the main battle-line if the situation demanded it but in most cases they would take advantage of their stealth capabilities to perform hit and run strikes on the enemy.

Ghosts were often shrouded in mystery, this was in no small part helped by the fact that they often left no survivors in the aftermath of their ambushes and left very little trace of their involvement, the rare few that did were often dismissed as hallucinations, they only recently stepped into the limelight after the Ullanor Crusade.

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 **Ironclad Terminators**

An elite formation created by Primarch Albrecht less than a decade after he reorganized his Legion. This formation was simply referred to as the Ironclads, they were deployed in three distinct manners:

First was the traditional vanguard, taking inspiration from their cousins in the sixteenth, it was not strange to find Ironclads acting as the proverbial tip of the spear during an advance. Second was teleportation strike, when the Legion Ghost Squads identified important targets they sometimes lacked the firepower to eliminate the target, their solution was to use a teleportation homer to mark important targets. At that point the Ironclads would teleport right onto the target, unleashing all firepower to wipe out the target before moving onto the next one. The last was more of a mutation of the first method, after mounting cyclonic missile launchers Ironclads would lead the assault on fortifications, missiles, Bolter or Volkite smashing through most if not all obstacles.

Like much of their wargear, the Tactical Dreadnought Armor of the Eleventh was modified in several subtle ways. From reinforcing the exoskeleton to altering the power grid of the Armor, to outright replacing the Power source with a more potent one. These changes were made with a purpose in mind, inspired by the servo-arms used by Techmarines and his brother Ferrus Manus and the weapons utilized by his nations elites, Albrecht designed a modification that allowed for a heavy weapon to be shoulder-mounted onto the armor. These heavy weapons often took the form of a Bolt Cannon or down-scaled Plasma Cannon allowing the Terminators combat options at all ranges.

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 **Inferno Squadrons (Cross between Destroyer Squadrons and Pyroclast Squadrons of the Salamanders)**

Inferno squadrons are specialist formation in the Eleventh Legion that was responsible for utilizing the dreaded and decried Destroyer Arsenal that the Eleventh possessed. When not using these weapons Marines of the Inferno squads are often equipped with either Volkite Caliver's or Heavy flamers before switching to Flame Projectors a century later when they were gifted to them by the Salamander Legion.

For all the ways his brothers glorified war, Albrecht Taranis was well aware of how ugly it could be, he knew exactly what sort of weapons that humans can creat and would willingly resort to. So it as no surprise to him to find that his legion had squadrons that utilized destructive weapons such as phosphex and radiation weaponry. Though he did not embrace those weapons as his brother Mortarion would in the future, he nevertheless began looking for ways to better utilize them. The first thing he did was redesign the inner workings of the Mark Two Power Armor to protect his men from the harmful effects of their own weaponry. Another thing he had done was create a more potent variation of Phosphex as he found that the Ork spores were burned up completely, it was often deployed in places where the Orks gathered. One other addition to their already deadly arsenal was Toxiferran, an improvised mixture of chemicals laced with psi-reactive materials. Toxiferran was deployed with extreme prejudice against Psychically active Xeno species.

Inferno squadrons are only authorized to utilized Rad, Phosphex and Toxiferran weapons when the Commander of the Grand Company or the Primarch himself gives permission, and in most cases they are deployed when the Eleventh follow their 'Wrack and Ruin' combat doctrine, which has often been described as the absolute last resort that the legion uses in any situation that does not involve the Greenskin menace.

* * *

 **Blackshields**

To err is to be human, The Primarch of the Eleventh Legion often understood that humans can make mistakes and his sons were no exception. Albrecht Taranis could forgive mistakes, but sometimes the mistake made is too grave or the one who committed it is unrepentant, these are the Space Marines who make up the Blackshield Formation of the Eleventh. To be a Blackshield is to have failed in the eyes of the Primarch and rest of the Legion, the Blackshield's name is stricken from the Legion's records, as far as the rest of Legion was concerned, the Blackshield in question was dead. All sigils and marks that indicated the identity of the Blackshield were painted over with black with only the symbol of the Aquila acting as identification.

Though Albrecht Taranis and the Officer's of the Eleventh Legion did not view the Blackshields as expendable, they were often deployed on the more dangerous battlefields first rather than risking the unattainted Legionaries. The Blackshields often fought in grim silence and with deadly efficiency that was only surpassed by that of the Myrmidons or Veterans. , only using the internal vox or hand signals to communicate with each other on the battlefield. The Blackshield's only goal was to atone, not in the eyes of the Imperium but in the eyes of their Primarch and their Brothers. If a Blackshield performed admirably in the line of duty and shown genuine remorse they could possibly have their names restored.

There are two ways for a Blackshield to get their name restored, If the Commander of the Grand Company or the Primarch himself believe that the Blackshield in question had served long enough and show sincere remorse than his name was restored and the Blackshield would rejoin the rank and file legionaries. The other way was death in the line of duty, if a Blackshield fell in combat than his name is restored to the Legion's Roster, his offense was stricken from the record and his body is given proper funerary rights.

The term Blackshield was also used to describe the phenomena involving other space marines going rogue from their Legions or even the Imperium proper. The amount of Blackshields in the Eleventh numbered only in the hundreds, and it would not be until the Horus Heresy where their numbers would skyrocket into thousands...

 **Evocati* (Veterans)**

A catch-all term used to designate Veterans of the Eleventh Legion. Thanks to their Gene-seed, Space Marines of the Eleventh have been known to recover from mortal injuries that would normally kill them. As a result of this Space Marines of the Eleventh tend to develop significant amounts of experience, learning from mistakes that would have normally killed them and in turn making them far deadlier combatants than the average Space Marine Veteran.

After their Reunion with their Primarch, the Eleventh Legion went on a mass-recruitment drive. After gathering a large number of candidates, Albrecht Taranis dispersed the veterans of his legion to the newly made companies to train their new recruits. After a few years all of the Veteran Astartes were recalled and reorganized into squadrons that became known as Evocati. Evocati were often equipped with no thought of how much resources it would take, Combi-weapons were considered standard among their squadrons, while not master-crafted their Power armor was often that of extremely high quality. They were organized into smaller squadrons of five or six compared to the standard ten.

The Primarch was well aware of how a handful of skilled warriors can make all the difference in battle, Evocati often played a key part in offensive maneuvers and several squadrons were often held back in reserve to react to any changes on the battlefield. The Evocati are masters of their roles, while the Eleventh itself is rarely acknowledged, their centuries of experience nevertheless marked them as among the most dangerous warriors that the Eleventh Legion had at their disposal. Though the Legion was later known for being deployed to where a battle was hard-fought, the Evocati of the Eleventh were known to stand where even their seasoned brothers would falter.

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 **Honorable mentions**

 **Apothecaries**

The Apothecaries of the Eleventh are notable due to the fact that they are often unneeded due to the Eleventh Primarch's healing capabilities being inherited by his Gene-sons. More often than not they are a simply stabilizing the injured Space Marine as their Larraman's Organ kicks into gear. As such the Apothecaries devote more attention to the treat of their comrades in the Imperial Army and have attained a mastery of it that even the apothecaries in their cousin legions lack . While the arrival of other Legions is often followed by fanfare, when Eleventh are brought as reinforcements there is also quiet sense of relief that follows, as their Apothecaries do not hesitate to save the lives of their mortal comrades.

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 **Librarians** **/Arcani**

The formation of the Librarius would not happen until Magnus the Red, Sanguinius, Jaghatai Khan and Albrecht Taranis set the foundations for it. Long before that and with the blessing of both the Emperor and Malcador the Sigilite, Albrecht Taranis formed Ordo Arcanum. It was an organization that was in many ways a precursor to the Librarius formed years later. While Ordo Arcanum's original purpose was devoted to teaching the Psychic Members of the Eleventh better control, it eventually encompassed teaching emerging Psykers in Imperium Obscurus as well. Due to both distance and the warp rift that separated the portion of the Galaxy now designated Segmentum Obscurus from Terra, Ordo Arcanum was formally sanctioned and acknowledged as an organization of the Imperium.

The Space Marines who were part of it learned how to both control and utilize their powers in the battlefields, Of them they fell into two categories: The aforementioned Tempest Blades who were trained by the Primarch himself and the Arcani, precursors to the Legion's Librarians. The first generation of Arcani were trained by sanctioned Psykers from Imperium Obscurus who were in turn trained by the Primarch himself. Another contrast between the Arcani an Tempest blades was present, whereas the Tempest blades used their capabilities offensively the Arcani harnessed theirs to protect their brothers in arms. This often took the form of utilizing an ability "Kine-shields", massive telekinetic barriers that could repel most ranged attacks. The Arcani's tendency to use their abilities to protect their comrades earned them no small amount of respect from the rest of their brothers and even a modicum of respect from some of the more anti-psyker elements in the other the Legions.

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 **Dreadnoughts**

 _"Only in Death does Duty End, and I am not dead yet." -_ Ancient Antares of the Storm Warden's Legion

The Dreadnoughts of the Eleventh are a quagmire of existence compared to those of their cousin legions.

Thanks to the advanced healing capabilities inherited from their Primarch Dreadnoughts were a rarity among the Eleventh Legion. In most cases, an Astartes of Eleventh would either recover enough to return to the battle line or the damage was too severe for Dreadnought protocols to be utilized in the first place. Nevertheless, The few that did exist were often equipped with the best technology the Legion had to offer.

The Isolation that a dreadnought felt affected them significantly, enough that they professed their reticence to go back to sleep to their Primarch. As a result of these protestations, Albrecht Taranis began working on a possible solution. Dreadnought pilots can go through an additional but extremely painful surgery that would integrate what remained of their organic bodies with extensive cybernetic prosthetics*. Though the survival rate was predicted to be extremely low all of the Dreadnought pilots of the Eleventh immediately volunteered as to them, death was preferable to the cold and dreamless sleep. Much to the surprise of the Legion's Apothecaries, not a single Dreadnought pilot died during the surgeries*. As a result of their newfound mobility, the Dreadnought Chassis' were modified so that the now mobile pilot can leave said dreadnought should it be damaged to the point of non-functionality. The more common patterns of Dreadnoughts seen in the ranks of the Eleventh are the Contemptor Mortis and Derodeo Pattern Dreadnoughts.

As a side effect the surgeries the Dreadnought found it much easier to pilot their combat walkers, when the Leviathan-Pattern was deployed said pilots were unaffected by same mental strains as others in their cousin legions, this resulted in the Leviathan being deployed more often by the Eleventh. But as a whole, Dreadnoughts in the Eleventh were more often than not utilized as fire support

With the exception of the Tenth Legion the process was not emulated by the others due to both complexity of the process and the other Primarchs deeming it unnecessary*.

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 **Bit's and Pieces, Primarch's Wargear**

Over the course of the Great Crusade, Albrecht Taranis had built up a significant Armory, Be it blades with origins found in the Dark Age to advanced Archaeotech weapons, The following weapons listed are among the ones he commonly wielded in battle, with the Primarch picking and choosing his weapons and armor as each battle dictated

 **Grey Raiment**

A suit of Artificer Armor made by Albrecht Taranis himself. The plating was comprised of the reforged metal plates from his 'Thunder Warrior' armor. The plates were converted into a Ceramite-like alloy, it's durability was only surpassed by the Aurumite plating on the Power Armor of the Adeptus Custodes and the Emperor himself.

This suit has seen significant Retrofitting as Albrecht had found new designs and mechanisms to incorporate including alloy plating reinforcement, servo-motor upgrades and an energy shield he reverse-engineered from Faaash Civilization's Aegis Shields. Primarch Taranis has also been known to consult Perturabo, Vulkan and Ferrus Manus when he was making improvements.

 **The Warden's Aegis**

 **(For Reference google "Imperius Diablo 3")**

\- Commissioned by the Emperor himself, this ornate suit of Power Armor was crafted by the same artisans who provide the Adeptus Custodes with their Armor. Albrecht Taranis often wore this suit during Ceremony and was often seen wearing publically during parades, he had rarely worn it in actual battle, favouring they Grey Raiment but had worn it more often when he was temporarily given the title Warmaster during the crisis that became known as the Rangdan Invasion.

Though an effective suit of armor, the Primarch himself was not satisfied and slowly incorporated systems from the Gray Raiment into the Aegis' design.

 **The Delver's Plate (Terminator Armor)**

A suit of Terminator Armor granted to the Eleventh Primarch by the Fabricator Locum of the Martian Mechanicum. This particular suit was outfitted with the Bleeding-edge of the Mechanicum's vast array of technologies. The Primarch often wore this plate when exploring the dangerous depths of Mars alongside several of his brothers such as Ferrus Manus and Perturabo. Though effective, it was rarely deployed on campaigns by its owner, but relegated for use when exploring other Dark Age Ruins and Space Hulks.

 **Nemesis, the Everforged Blade (Nemesis-Force Sword analogue)**

Originally nothing more than an old Drusalian War-blade, It has been a constant companion of the Primarch since the Ietanian Unification. In terms of appearance, there was very little to none other than the single word inscribed upon the blade: _Nemesis_.

This sword had been broken several times. Once during a climactic battle against the Yu'Vath, another time when slaying an Ork Warboss and another time was when he spent time on Fenris with his brother Russ on what some accounts say was a bet between two brothers, it was also where he broke it slaying a fenrisan Ice Kraken. Every time it was broken, The blade would be reforged by the Primarch, upon slaying the Ork Warboss, Xerican forging methods were utilized. The Primarch would occasionally incorporate new metals into it's reforging, the most recent metal being the Ice Kraken teeth that were melted down by the Iron Priests of Fenris. As time went on the Primarch had developed better control over his Psychic Abilities and began channeling psychic energy into his sword.

But as he used it in battle he found the blade itself being damaged over time. He found a solution from an unlikely source: Malacador the Sigilite. Through the Sigilite Albrecht learned more about Force weapons and the Sigilite had also gifted him materials: iron and silver treated with methods unknown to the Primarch these metals would also be incorporated into the blade.

At this point, Albrecht had also decided to incorporate a Power-field Generator into the reconstruction. However, it resulted in him spending more time on redesigning the sword. After months of work, he had succeeded in building the blade. The result could only be described as an amalgamation of Science and Sorcery.

 **The Black Talon (Lightning Claw/Force Weapon)**

During his time on Terra, Primarch Taranis was able to interact with his brother Horus Lupercal. Humoring his little brother, Horus allowed him to examine his lightning claw: the Talon of Horus. Noting his interest, as a parting gift before departing on an expedition Horus had the Artificers of his Legion create a schematic of his lightning claw and gifted it to his brother before departing.

Months later Albrecht had designed the Black Talon. The Black Talon was originally just a lightning claw inspired by the Talon of Horus, possessing a similar ranged weapon, in this case a prototype bolter design that would see mass production many years later. In terms of size, the Black Talon was smaller than that of the Talon of Horus.

 **Dragon's Bane (Energy Pistol/ Buffed up Lantern pistol)**

A drum-barrelled directed energy blaster and the preferred sidearm of Albrecht Taranis that was created by him shortly after accompanying his father in the compliance of the planet Shenlong. Having aided his father in destroying the Dragon Cult, Albrecht had asked his father if he could claim the cult leader's weapon for himself as well as personal study. He was politely rebuffed from claiming it, but was allowed to study it.

The result was the Dragon's Bane, a direct-energy sidearm whose destructive capabilities matched if not exceeded that of the Adrathic weapons employed by the Adeptus Custodes. A mass-produced variant was later designed by the Primarch to be used by the officers and veterans of his Legion

 **Hunter's Reach (Bolter/Combi-Weapon)**

A bolt gun made the Primarch himself. This particular weapon could be considered one-of-kind as it designed from scratch, without using and Standard Template Construct as reference. In Comparison to the ones used by the Space Marines the barrel and body were elongated. Originally his preferred weapon, as the Crusade wore on, his father had quietly taken him aside and requested that he lead his legion from the front. Taranis complied and as such this weapon saw less use In time, Primarch Taranis aided his Master of the Forge in recreating the Heliothermic rounds used by the Adeptus Custodes, though the process itself is difficult and as such said rounds are reserved for the Primarch and Space Marines chosen by him.

* * *

 **Informal Author Commentary of Primarch Capabilities**

By the time of the Great Crusade, Albrecht is among the strongest Primarchs as a combatant. The Primarch's who he'd have the hardest time fighting are as follows (ordered from hardest to relatively easier): Leman Russ, Sanguinius, Lion El'Jonson, Horus, Fulgrim, Ferrus Manus. As a Psyker, he is the fifth strongest 'human' Psyker with the Emperor, Magnus, Alivia Sureka and Malcador surpassing him He makes up for being a relatively weaker Psyker by being somewhat more versatile in how he utilizes his abilities. It was thanks to both Alivia and Ollanius that he avoided the trap that is the (relatively) squishy wizard.

As a strategist, he's among the top five as he's been participating in the Great Crusade for more than a century by this point. As a tactician, the number of Primarch's that can beat him in that regard can also be counted on one hand.

 **AN:**

 ***This is true, he did collaborate with the Primarch of the Twentieth, just not the one you think of immediately because it was actually Omegon, another facet of the AU. you might wonder why he didn't collaborate with say Corvus or Perturabo that's because they've yet to be found when he was developing the Ghost's as a military unit**

 ***Think Robocop-level of cybernetic prosthetic. If you want a mental reference or what's left of Robocop in the 2014 movie, it is the closest approximation of the level of damage it takes to render a member of the Eleventh Legion a Dreadnought in most cases. Albrecht eventually develops _Deus Ex_ level of cybernetic augmentation for not only his dreadnought pilots but his Space Marines and baseline humans as well.**

 ***One of the few times that Albrecht cheats/asks Minerva for help with a problem. It's a rare occurrence for him to ask her for help, another example will involve a certain Primarch with Cortical implants (read: Angron.)**

 ***or in the case of a few Primarchs, they were not willing to risk the lives of their sons on what was a dangerous procedure at the time.**

 ***Yes, i'm well aware that Evocati was an Ultramarine Formation on Armatura, Albrecht uses it knowing the Roman (or in this case Roma) Legion connotation, which was in many ways a term used to describe a veteran of the Roman Legion who returned to service. He kinda gets dibs by dint of the fact that he named his men Evocati first in this AU (fifth Primarch to be found)**

 **Heavy Gunners staggering their fi** **re was inspired by the World War 1 myth where British soldiers supposedly fired their rifles so fast that it sounded akin to machine-gun fire (not sure how true that is).**

 **You'll notice that their units before they meet their Primarch lack a running theme so to speak, thematic names of units are everywhere. It is kind of on purpose, it's to show that the Legion lacked an identity aside from taking pride in their background.**


End file.
